KUALA LUMPUR – The government will take stern action against parties that try to enter the country illegally as enforcement agencies will continue to tighten border controls, especially in "rat lanes".
Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this in announcing that 76 illegal immigrants and two boat skippers have been detained in Op Benteng yesterday.
"Eight vehicles were also seized following 112 road-block operations under Op Penawar and Op Benteng," he said in a statement today.
Op Benteng – involving the police, armed forces, Maritime Enforcement Agency and Malaysian Border Security Agency – is meant to strictly control the country's borders in an integrated manner from being breached by illegal immigrants and to curb cross-border crimes, in addition to halting the spread of Covid-19.
Ismail Sabri said the police also arrested 246 individuals yesterday for violating the movement control order (MCO) directives.
"From the total, 236 were compounded while 10 were remanded. Among the offences committed included entertainment centre activities (91 cases), failure to provide equipment to record customer details (84), failure to wear a mask (44), failure to comply with social-distancing measures (23) and other offences (4)," he added.
The assurance on tight border control comes on the heels of a foreign vessel – MV Fire Man Zanzibar – illegally entering Malaysian waters and berthing undetected at the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) recently.
The private-company boat registered in Tanzania was enroute from Japan to Iran when the incident occurred on December 11.
The Vibes had reported that, when port officers and security forces entered the boat, they found two of its Iranian crewmen, in their late 40s, sick and starving, with no food on board. The crew also did not have any money.
One of the men was discharged from hospital a day later and brought back to the vessel, while the other was discharged two days later. Covid-19 test results for the duo and their skipper returned negative.
Police are expected to detain them for trespassing and docking without permission before they are repatriated.
Questions have been raised about how the vessel could have easily trespassed into a port without enforcement escort, and the implications this poses for security along the country’s coasts. – The Vibes, December 25, 2020
