Syndicate involved in foreign worker employment fraud busted

 

The immigration department seized 256 passports from countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.

KUALA LUMPUR: The immigration department (JIM) busted a syndicate allegedly making money fraudulently from the government’s migrant labour recalibration (RTK) programme. The syndicate is believed to have earned RM2 million through its fraudulent activities.

The department arrested three foreigners and a local man at a tourism company office in Kuala Lumpur on April 15 and seized 256 passports from countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia as well as RM7,270 in cash.

According to immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud, the syndicate was trying to register the owners of the seized passports for the RTK programme.

“This syndicate has been using this tourism company’s premises as its operations base. This is where they register and collect passports and payments from foreigners to join the RTK programme.”

The syndicate is believed to have operated as an outsourcing company and using several dormant companies to get migrant worker quotas under the RTK programme.

“Successfully registered migrant workers would then be offered to individuals and companies which want to recruit migrant workers, with the syndicate charging their clients from RM6,500 to RM8,000 per worker to get their Temporary Working Pass (PLKS) for various sectors through the programme,” said Khairul in a statement today.

The labour recalibration programme regularises illegal immigrants in the country as foreign workers who could be employed by eligible employers.

All four suspects, who were taken to the immigration department in Putrajaya, will be investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63, Passport Act 1966, and Immigration Regulations 1965.

Khairul advised foreign workers and employers to deal directly with JIM and not use middlemen or agents to obtain legitimate PLKS under the RTK programme. - FMT