KUALA LUMPUR: The fun of a group of foreigners gambling in a premises in Jalan Bedara, Bukit Bintang here rudely ended when they were arrested in a special operation by the Immigration Department (JIM) last night.
Shocked by the raid, some of them tried to escape by climbing buildings, hiding under tables and in business premises, but they were all arrested.
JIM Enforcement Division director Basri Othman said the integrated Op Belanja operation, which was carried out from 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm, was in response to complaints from the public over the past three weeks who were uncomfortable with the presence of foreigners who converged at the location for their social activities.
“More surprisingly, the enforcement officers also found an online gambling premises equipped with a closed-circuit camera (CCTV) monitoring system.
“When the authorities broke down the door of the premises, seven foreigners were still busy engaged in online gambling unaware of the presence of the operation personnel. They were all arrested.” he said at a press conference at the location of the raid last night.
Basri said that although the dark environment and narrow lanes made the operation difficult, the 106 enforcement officers managed to conduct checks on 2,445 individuals, namely 1,600 foreigners and 845 locals.
Of that total, 770 foreigners were detained for various immigration offences including not having identification documents, overstaying and possessing unrecognised cards or passes.
“Further checks found that those detained consisted of 377 Bangladeshi men, 235 Myanmar men, 72 Nepalese men, 58 Indian men, 17 Indonesian men and two women as well as three men and six women from other countries.
“All the detainees, aged between 21 and 65, were taken to JIM Putrajaya for initial screening before being placed at the Bukit Jalil and Lenggeng Immigration Depots for further investigation,” he said.
Among the offences detected were under Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for overstaying, Section 6(1)(c) for not having valid travel documents and Regulation 39(b) of the Immigration Regulations 1963.
In addition, they were also investigated under the Passport Act 1966 and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.
Basri also reminded the public and employers not to protect illegal immigrants as legal action may be taken.
“The public who have information on illegal immigrants can channel information to JIM to assist in the implementation of enforcement operations,“ he said. – Bernama
