KUALA TERENGGANU: The Terengganu Immigration Department detained 13 illegal immigrants while they were playing football at the Tok Jembal football field in Kuala Nerus, on Friday.
State Immigration director Azhar Abd Hamid said in the 5.30 pm raid, a total of 10 Myanmar nationals and three Bangladeshi nationals, aged 20 to 55, were arrested.
“Their arrest is the result of an inspection against 59 immigrants who were found at the football field. All 13 illegal immigrants 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 foreign nationals riding or driving vehicles (Ops PeWA) together with the Road Transport Department (JPJ) and the Royal Malaysia Police at the Terengganu JPJ Hall in Bukit Kecil (in Kuala Terengganu). From there we learned that there was a group of foreigners playing football at the Tok Jembal field,” he said in a press conference at Wisma Persekutuan, here today.
He added that in the Ops PeWA, a total of six illegal immigrants were arrested.
He said the department inspected 54 foreigners 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 that the department inspected 5,656 immigrants throughout last year and of the total, 1,226 were detained for various offences.
“A total of 2,132 illegal immigrants 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 immigrants in Terengganu had registered under the Labour Recalibration Programme (RTK) 2.0 by 712 employers.
However, of the total, only around 50 per cent 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,“ he said.-Bernama