KUALA LUMPUR: At least 24 immigration officers have been found guilty of various crimes involving the entry of foreigners into Malaysia from 2020 to 2022, the Dewan Negara was told today.
Deputy home minister Shamsul Anuar Nasarah said a further 112 cases involved staff who violated the code of conduct under the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993.
“The ministry is very serious as well as firm on the issue of integrity and will not compromise on the misconduct of our staff,” he said in response to Senator Hussin Ismail, who wanted to know the latest disciplinary statistics for immigration staff.
Hussin also asked about the government’s efforts to overcome the issue of tourists overstaying.
Shamsul said from 2020 to date, the immigration department had arrested 13,242 foreign nationals for overstaying, which is an offence under the Immigration Act 1959/63.
He said 4,292 foreigners were caught overstaying in 2020, 2,704 in 2021, 4,267 in 2022 and 1,979 since Jan 1 this year.
The immigration department had come under fire recently for the conduct of its officers.
Barely two weeks ago, an immigration officer in Kuantan was arrested on suspicion of accepting at least RM500,000 in bribes so that he would not pursue local businessmen over work permit issues.
In March, the MACC arrested five immigration officers suspected of involvement in a duplicate MyKad ring. The syndicate was believed to be supplying authentic MyKads and boarding passes, in the name of genuine MyKad holders, to undocumented migrants.
The migrants will then clear immigration checks at Tawau airport and Terminal 2 after paying a bribe to the officers concerned.
This case came to light days after the appointment of Ruslin Jusoh as director-general of immigration. He has promised to root out “naughty” officers but insists they only represent a small fraction of the department’s staff. - FMT
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