KUALA LUMPUR: As many as 45 foreign workers were detained in a raid conducted by the Kuala Lumpur Immigration Department on eight popular Arab eateries in Bukit Bintang last night.
Its director, Wan Mohammed Saupee Wan Yusoff, said the operation, which began at 10.40 pm, resulted in the arrest of 40 men and five women, aged between 21 and 45, who were employed at the restaurants.
He said the detainees were of various nationalities, including 14 Yemenis, seven Syrians, four Pakistanis, 10 Bangladeshis, four Egyptians, three Indonesians, one Afghan, one Filipino and a Myanmar national.
“All of them were found to have committed various immigration offences, including misuse of passes, lacking valid work permits, and possessing expired documents,” he said in a statement today.
Wan Mohammed Saupee added that the one-hour operation, involving 35 officers and personnel from the Kuala Lumpur Immigration Department, was conducted following public complaints about the employment of foreign workers at the restaurants.
“Preliminary surveillance and intelligence gathering by the department also thwarted attempts by some foreign workers to disguise themselves as customers during the raid,” he said.
All detainees were brought to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot for further action. The case is being investigated under Regulation 39(b) of the Immigration Regulations 1963 and Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
