SUNGAI PETANI: Fifteen illegal immigrants working at an electrical wire factory at Bakar Arang Industrial Area were detained for various offences under Ops Mahir on Thursday night.
Kedah Immigration Department Enforcement Department chief Mohd Shahrir Khalil said 14 of the women were from Indonesia while one was from Myanmar, aged between 20 and 55.
Shahrir said the operation began just before midnight on Thursday, led by the department's senior assistant director Marlis Marhaini Abd Rashid with 18 officers.
He said the team inspected 49 foreign workers, 14 Indonesian women, 33 Myanmar women and two Nepali men.
“Eleven of the Indonesian women did not have any valid travel documents under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amendment 2002) while one Indonesian woman was found to have overstayed, an offence under Section 15(1)(c) of the same Act,” he said in a statement today.
Shahrir said two Indonesian women and one Myanmar woman were detained under Rule 39(b) of the Immigration Regulations 1963 for violating their social passes.
He said the department also detained the factory owner to assist in investigations for harbouring the illegal immigrants, under Section 56(1)(d) of the same Act.
He said all the detainees were taken to the state department headquarters before being transported to the Immigration Detention Depot in Belantik, Sik.