13 undocumented migrants nabbed while playing football

The Terengganu Immigration Department detained 13 undocumented migrants while they were playing football at the Tok Jembal football field in Kuala Nerus, on Friday (Jan 12).

State Immigration director Azhar Abd Hamid said in the 5.30pm raid, 10 Myanmar and three Bangladeshi nationals, aged 20 to 55, were arrested.

“Their arrest is the result of an inspection against 59 migrants who were found at the football field.

“All 13 undocumented migrants were arrested under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amended 2002) for not having valid documents.

“Earlier on the same day, we conducted a special operation on migrant nationals riding or driving vehicles (Ops Pewa) together with the Road Transport Department and the Royal Malaysia Police at the Terengganu JPJ Hall in Bukit Kecil (in Kuala Terengganu).

“From there, we learned there was a group of migrants playing football at the Tok Jembal field,” he said in a press conference at Wisma Persekutuan, in Kuala Terengganu, today.

He added that in Ops Pewa, six undocumented migrants were arrested.

He said the department inspected 54 migrants and detained three Bangladeshi men and two Myanmar men for not having valid documents while a Cambodian man was arrested under Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amended 2002) for overstaying.

In another development, Azhar said the department inspected 5,656 migrants throughout last year and of the total, 1,226 were detained for various offences.

“A total of 2,132 undocumented migrants placed at the Immigration Detention Depot in Ajil in Hulu Terengganu have been repatriated to their home countries,” he said.

Azhar added that 6,855 migrants in Terengganu were registered under the Labour Recalibration Programme (RTK) 2.0 by 712 employers.

However, of the total, only around 50 percent had done the biometric system identification, he said.

“RTK ended on Dec 31, last year, so we ask employers who have registered to immediately bring their employees to the Immigration Department to do the biometric system identification.

“If they fail to do so, we will take action including prosecuting the employer,” Azhar said.

- Bernama