GEORGETOWN: The Immigration Department has detected Rohingya ethnic Myanmar nationals entering the country using agents, including managing to obtain United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud said, as such, they would examine the matter in depth using a committee at the Home Ministry for further action.
"I managed to interview several Rohingya UNHCR card holders (during the operation) tonight (last night) and they confessed entering Malaysia through the borders of Kedah and Kelantan from Thailand. They even admitted that it (entering Malaysia) was managed by agents.
"In fact, they also admitted that the agents managed the trip to the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur for the process of obtaining the card. We will examine this matter more thoroughly though the committee at the Home Ministry.
"They (the Rohingya ethnics) did not buy (the UNHCR card) but they paid the agents between RM5,000 and RM7,000 each and the agents will take it to the UNHCR office.
"Their understanding is that the card was bought but in fact they paid the agents involved in managing their entry," he said after the operation conducted by the Immigration Department at a housing project site in Kubang Menerong here.
Khairul Dzaimee said, during the operation, they checked 36 foreign nationals working at the construction site before rounding 25 of them up, including a woman, for having no valid travel documents, overstaying and having dubious documents.
He said among those detained in the operation, which began at 11.15pm, were 10 Bangladeshi men, eight Indonesian men, six other men and a woman from Myanmar.
"All of them have been taken to the detention depot for further investigations.
"Among them, some were using dubious documents, especially UNHCR card holders, which we suspect may not be genuine," he added.
Last night's operation was the 261st successful one conducted by the Penang Immigration Department throughout the year where a total 193 foreigners together with 32 employers were arrested for various immigration offenses during the period.
"Although the number of illegal immigrants arrested in the operation was not many compared to the number of operations carried out, the amount of compounds imposed on the employers and the foreigners was more than RM2.5 million," he said.