PUTRAJAYA – A syndicate which supplies undocumented immigrants using fake temporary visit permits and is believed to have raked in RM4.5 to RM5 million a year, has been smashed in a special operation by the Immigration Department on Wednesday.
In the operation, 43 men from India, 20 Bangladeshis and two Pakistanis aged between 25 to 45 were detained at a factory and a foreign worker dormitory in Selangor and the syndicate operation office in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.
Immigration director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said an Indian national, 45, is believed to be the syndicate mastermind while a Bangladeshi man, 30, suspected to be a senior syndicate person was arrested in Seremban, Negri Sembilan.
“Initial investigation found the Indian man holds an authentic expatriate pass while the Bangladeshi was using a temporary visit permit to move freely in the country,” he said in a statement today.
He said the modus operandi of the syndicate was to set up a company supplying foreign labour and offering workers to employers.
“When a deal is agreed, the syndicate will supply foreign workers carrying fake permits while the employers or factories believed the workers were legitimate based on the sticker on the passport,” he said.
Ruslin said the syndicate would charge each foreign worker who wishes to obtain a temporary visit permit to work in the factory, RM6,000.
“At the same time, the employers or factories using such workers will have to pay the workers’ salaries through the syndicate,” he said.
In the raid, 62 copies of passports, comprising 40 Indian passports, 20 Bangladeshi passports and two passports from Pakistan with fake temporary visit permit stickers were seized while eight fake permit stickers were still unused.
He said all of them were detained at the Semenyih Immigration Depot for further investigation
for violations under the Immigration Act 1959/63, Immigration Regulations 1963 and AMLATFPUAA 2001. – Bernama, April 7, 2023
