KOTA BARU – Two agents and eight Thai women were detained by police in two separate Op Benteng raids in Pasir Mas and Tumpat on March 26 and 27 (Friday and Saturday).
General Operations Force (GOF) Ninth Battalion commanding officer Nor Azizan Yusof said all the women, aged between 24 and 39, were apprehended for entering the country via illegal routes at the Malaysia-Thailand border.
According to him, in the first incident at 11pm on Friday, a GOF team on patrol stopped a suspicious looking Proton Wira driven by a 32-year-old man in Kg Kubang Kual, Pasir Mas.
He said on inspection, police found four Thai women in the vehicle holding expired passports.
“Further inspection showed that the women entered the country through an illegal base in Rantau Panjang, the local man being the agent taking them to a specific location.”
All involved were detained and taken to the Rantau Panjang police station for further action, he said.
Following the incident, Nor Azizan said the team raided a chalet in Kg Paya Pasir near Wakaf Bharu, Tumpat at 5am yesterday.
He said GOF detained a 59-year-old man in front of a chalet.
“Investigations led them to find four Thai women without any documents in another chalet.
“We also seized a Honda City near the location, suspected of being used in smuggling,” he said.
He said the case would be investigated under Section 26J of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 and Section 6(1) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
“All the women were believed to be looking for jobs in the country following the government’s relaxation of the movement control order,” he said. – Bernama, March 28, 2021
