The Immigration Department of Malaysia (JIM) has dismantled a Bangladesh migrant smuggling network following a raid on an apartment unit in Taman Maluri here that was used as a temporary holding facility, or ‘safe house’, earlier this week.
Immigration Director-General Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the operation led to the arrest of seven Bangladeshi men, including five individuals aged between 27 and 44 believed to be smuggled migrants.
“Two other men, aged 56 and 28, were also detained. They are suspected to have acted as a coordinator or caretaker of the safe house and as a transporter for the syndicate’s operations,” he said in a statement today.
Zakaria said checks revealed that the migrants’ passports did not bear any valid Malaysian entry endorsement, raising strong suspicion that they had entered the country illegally.
A Perodua Myvi believed to have been used to transport the migrants was also seized during the operation.
He said the raid was conducted based on intelligence gathered on migrant smuggling activities involving Bangladeshi nationals who were believed to have entered Malaysia through illegal routes in Kelantan.
Further investigations revealed that the migrants were linked to the so-called ‘Iqbal Syndicate’, which was recently crippled by JIM in Kelantan.
“The syndicate’s modus operandi involved smuggling migrants via land routes. The Taman Maluri premises functioned as a temporary safe house for migrants who had just arrived from the East Coast,” he said.
According to Zakaria, the migrants were believed to have crossed into Malaysia through unauthorised land routes near the Malaysia–Thailand border before being moved onward to other destinations.
He added that the operation also incorporated victim identification measures for potential human trafficking cases among vulnerable groups, guided by the National Guideline on Human Trafficking Indicators (NGHTI) 2.0.
All detainees have been taken to the Immigration Headquarters in Putrajaya for further investigation under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (ATIPSOM) [Act 670] and the Immigration Act 1959/63 [Act 155].
-THE MALAYSIA VOICE
