Malaysia police detain 68 Bangladeshis in a drive against illegal immigrants

Around 100 expatriates, 68 of whom are Bangladeshis, have been detained in a police operation during the Chinese New Year holiday in Kuala Lumpur.

Many expatriates were detained earlier in the year while visiting the Malaysian capital during the New Year holidays.

The immigration department examined the documents of 535 foreign workers and detained 123 people during the police operation on Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur city centre.

Among the arrested, other than the Bangladeshis, there are 36 Indonesians, nine Nepalese, seven Myanmaris, and one each from India, Pakistan and Yemen, said a report of the country’s English daily ‘The Star’ quoting the Malaysian Immigration Department Director General Khairul Dzaimee Bin Daud.

They were arrested for not having identity cards, illegal entrances into the country and overstaying with expired VISAS. They have all been placed in the immigration police detention centre after arrests, the daily reported.

It quoted Khairul Dzaimee as saying that in an effort to arrest illegal workers, the immigration department conducted 1,353 raids across the country in January and detained a total of 5,091 people of different nationalities.

He did not provide information about the number of arrests made from each nationality.

Eighty-three Malaysians have also been arrested in the raid over allegations of illegal recruitment of workers.