Crime spree involving immigration officers prompts calls for reform

 

A number of Immigration Department officers arrested for alleged involvement in various crimes, notably in the recent "stamping facility" case, has prompted calls for reforms.

Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan's (Patriot) president, Mohamed Arshad Raji said the large number of arrests is an indication of inherent weakness in the Immigration Department.

"It is unbelievable that such recalcitrant officers had been allowed to carry out their illegal activities, over a year, unnoticed by their superiors, unless the superiors are themselves a party to the illegal activities," he said.

Likewise, he also noted incidences of crimes involving the National Registration Department (NRD) officers in Penang last year.

For the record, six people, including an NRD assistant director, were slapped with 32 charges of falsifying Malaysian birth certificates and MyKad to be sold to foreigners from China.

"The Immigration and National Registration departments are two critical departments that must come under scrutiny by the relevant investigating and security agencies of the government.

"Any illegal activity carried out by officials of the two agencies is tantamount to treason, and it is paramount that the government adopts zero tolerance to any such activities in the future," he said.

Hence, the NGO urged the government to revamp both departments, and ensure the department heads take full responsibility in any failure.

"Patriot urges the government to undertake a complete revamp of both the departments and that the department heads must be told that they are to accept full responsibility and accountability in the future for any failure within their department."

The MACC had arrested 50 individuals related to the "stamping facility" syndicate, including 28 immigration officers.

One of the low-rank Immigration officers was found to have possessed luxury vehicles such as Phantom Rolls Royce, Mustang, Range Rover, and Audi.

MACC probes found that these officers helped agents to extend expired social visit passes without the presence of the travel documents' owners. These agents also set up counter facilities at KLIA and KLIA2 for immigrants who have been blacklisted or whose visas have expired to return to their countries of origin. - Mkini