TASEK GELUGOR - The Immigration Department (JIM) has found that some ethnic Rohingyas have entered the country using the services of agents who would also take them to the UNHCR office to obtain the refugee card.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud said the matter would be scrutinised by a committee at the Home Ministry for further action.
"I had the chance to speak to some Rohingya UNHCR card holders (in the operation) yesterday. They confessed that they entered Malaysia through the borders of Kedah and Kelantan from Thailand and admitted that it was managed by agents.
"They also confessed that the agents managed trips to the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur for the process of obtaining the card.
"They (ethnic Rohingya) did not purchase the (UNHCR) cards, but they paid the agent between RM5,000 and RM7,000 per person, and the agent would take them to the UNHCR office. They thought that they purchased the cards but actually, they paid the agents involved in managing their entry,” he told reporters after the operation at a housing project site in Kubang Menerong, here early this morning.
During the raid, the department inspected 36 foreign nationals working at the site and detained 25 of them, including a woman, for not having a travel document and overstaying.
Khairul Dzaimee said those arrested in the operation that started at 11.15 pm consisted of 10 Bangladeshi men, eight Indonesian men, five Myanmar men and one Nepalese man and woman.
"All the foreigners were taken to the detention depot for further investigation because some of them were suspected of using inauthentic UNHCR cards,” he said.
He also said that the operation was the 261st successful operation carried out by the Penang JIM so far this year, and a total of 193 foreigners and 32 employers were detained for various immigration offences during the period, involving a compound amount of over RM2.5 million. - BERNAMA