KUALA LUMPUR, 20 April 2018:
It was simply mind-boggling when the authorities stumbled on 30 Rohingyas who were pathetically cramped in squalid conditions in one of seven units of a three-storey building in the Pusat Bandar Utara Selayang.
Nevertheless, this was the scenario which greeted the enforcement officers of the Immigration Department, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission during an integrated operation about 4.30pm yesterday.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Tan Sri Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz said the unit was found to have been illegally converted into seven ‘rooms’ which were partitioned by wooden planks.
There was neither power supply nor proper drainage system, he said.
“According to the standard rules, a unit can only be occupied by up to 12 people at any one time but the occupants of this unit comprised 30 adults and children,” he told reporters after the integrated operation ended here.
Mhd Amin Nordin said the illegally erected rooms would be demolished by the DBKL enforcement personnel and the owners of the premises would be served with a warning notice.
In the same operation, a total of 340 foreigners from Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia were detained at the Kuala Lumpur Wholesale Market for various offences including abuse of study permits, expired documents and overstaying.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said of the 600 foreigners screened, some of them were United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card holders but they were found to have been trading in the market.
“This is an offence because the UNHCR cards for refugees does not allow them to work or open up their own businesses as the government also provides employment opportunities in certain sectors such as plantation.
“However, they ran away and opened their own businesses.”
Mustafar said the suspects aged between 20 and 55, were taken to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Centre to facilitate investigations under Section 55 and Section 56 of the Immigration Act 1959/1963.
He said between January and March this year, more than 23,000 illegal immigrants were detained for various offences.
– Bernama