JOHOR BARU: The Immigration Department will meet other agencies and ministries under its National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) joint operations strategy to sever any illegal immigrant network’s link to vice activities in spas and massage parlours.
Its director-general, Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali, said the move was in line with the department’s aim to uphold the country’s security and sovereignty by stopping immoral activities which involved illegal immigrants.
“When spas and health centres are used as vice dens, then there is a need to sever the network of people who are involved in this illegal activity.
“The local authorities need to look into such things as some of these premises are illegally operating in residential areas or condominium buildings.
“We can see when people are constantly going in and out of these premises and some of the women wear obscene clothing. This is not a conducive environment for families in residential areas
“I will discuss this matter with the related ministry or agencies to strengthen the NBOS efforts so that we could better enforce the law against this menace,” said Mustafar at the Johor Immigration department after an Op Gegar raid here on Saturday night.
Forty foreign illegal immigrant women comprising Vietnamese, Indonesians and Thais aged between 25 and 37 were detained in two spas in Masai and Permas Jaya during the 9.30pm operation. Also detained in the raid were nine Malaysian men, who allegedly harboured the illegal immigrants, five Indonesian men and an Indonesian woman with no valid travel documents.
Present was Johor Immigration Department director Datuk Rohaizi Bahari and the state department’s enforcement chief Masri Adul. Mustafar said the department was going all out to combat vice activities involving illegal immigrants, who either violated their visit passes or were without valid travel documents.
He said the two premises raided in Johor Baru last night were believed to have been operating for a few years based on the structure of the premises and existence of closed circuit television cameras in them.
He said there was a need to nip such problems in the bud by scrutinising and looking into matters related to the issuance of licences for spas and health centres.
Mustafar said based on the raid, some vice dens operated in residential areas as the operators think such a tactic would evade detection from the authorities.
“This is where information from the public can help to put a stop to these vice dens,” he said.