KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysiakini reporter, B Nantha Kumar, is said to have been arrested in relation to his recent report on a migrant smuggling cartel that involves a former immigration official.
The news portal published early this morning at around 3am of his arrest late last night.
It also said that an officer “claiming to be from MACC” told it that Nantha Kumar would be brought to the Putrajaya Magistrate’s Court for remand proceedings this morning.
Malaysiakini added that the officer refused to allow any contact or communication with the reporter.
Scoop is attempting to confirm Nantha Kumar’s arrest.
Nantha Kumar’s report on Feb 22 cited an unnamed source from the Immigration Department who alleged that a former immigration officer, who is a “Datuk”, is the mastermind behind a Pakistan-linked cartel operating at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
The ex-immigration officer allegedly began working with Pakistani agents to run migrant smuggling syndicates after his retirement.
The syndicates formed companies to obtain quotas for foreign workers, and then sold the quotas to third parties at the price of between RM4,500 to RM5,500 per person, Nantha Kumar’s report had stated.
The report also claimed that migrant smuggling of Pakistanis into Malaysia were on the increase after greater scrutiny and stricter enforcement action on smuggling of Bangladesh nationals.
While for China nationals, ease of entry using autogates and generous visa free-exchange programmes between Malaysia and China no longer made the “services” of agents attractive anymore for China citizens. - March 1, 2025
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