KOTA BARU: There was an orderly movement at the construction site of the state government's affordable housing scheme at Badang here as the Immigration Department launched its first operation against illegal workers and their employers who did not apply for their E-cards.
The workers dropped their tools as instructed and lined up for inspection by enforcement officers in the operation led by state director Wan Mohd Saupee Wan Yusof.
Wan Saupee said there were two or three workers who tried to escape by jumping over the corrugated zinc wall surrounding the work site but they were promptly detained by the officers.
"In the operation which started at 11am, we checked 147 foreign workers who were Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Indonesians.
"From the number, 97 were found without valid documents and other offences,” he told reporters after the operation.
Wan Saupee said they comprised of 85 Bangladeshi, seven Pakistanis and five Indonesians.
He said they would undergo further checks at the enforcement division office at Jalan Telipot here before being sent to the immigration detention depot in Tanah Merah.