Corruption among some Immigration officers has always been regularly featured in the media. On 31 May 2016, it was reported by Anadolu Agency, a newswire from Turkey that Malaysia's immigration department has sacked 15 officers, suspended 14 others and frozen the salaries of 8 others accused of compromising migration systems at two major airports and allowing human trafficking syndicates to move illegal migrants in and out of the country.
According to the then Immigration Director-General Sakib Kusmi some 37 officers were found guilty of “sabotaging” the Malaysian Immigration System (myIMMs) over the past 6 years.
He even said he guessed the group may have made over RM1 billion over the years and how many people were allowed into the country during the entire period.
These officers deliberately `switched off’ the myIMMs system to make it appears as `crashed’ at least once a day.
Passports would then be stamped manually and foreigners entering the country would thus evade computer checks that would register them as entering or leaving the country, check their names on international terror databases, or confirm if their passports were genuine or forged.
The DG reportedly said that the department's internal probe found that the tampering had begun in 2010 and involved a network masterminded by syndicates from abroad that made use of Malaysians, including immigration officers.
The syndicate hacked or breached the myIMMs system, assisted by the immigration officers.
Even the National Audit Department, in its 2015 report, had found several weaknesses in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of the myIMMs project, which was worth RM29.9 million and was awarded through direct negotiations to HeiTech Padu in 2010 and approved by the Finance Ministry.
Even the Deputy Prime Minister reportedly said that about 100 people, including immigration officers and criminal syndicate members, were under investigation over the breaches.
In mid May 2016, it was reported that Malaysian police arrested 19 people - six Malaysians including two immigration officers, one agent and three runners, as well as 10 Sri Lankans and three Indian agents - suspected of trafficking Sri Lankan nationals with fake Malaysian passports to Geneva, Switzerland.
After being promoted as the Immigration Director General in 2017, Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali revealed that an internal audit and an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had uncovered a passport fraud scheme being committed by officers in Selangor since 2014 that, according to MACC deputy commissioner Datuk Azam Baki, "could be happening at most Immigration offices nationwide."
On 28 Sept 2018, the New Straits Times reported that the MACC arrested 6 Immigration Department officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for suspected involvement in corruption and power abuse.
On 15 June 2022, in a statement, the Immigration Department said it will cooperate fully with MACC’s investigation into the arrest of 7 Immigration officers and 2 individuals, including a foreigner for allegedly being involved in the irregular issuance of passes, immigration documents, and soliciting for bribes amounting to over RM500,000.
On 20 April 2023, MACC reportedly arrested 2 Immigration Department officers placed at the Immigration Attaché’s Office in its consulate in Dhaka on suspicion that they had accepted bribes in connection with the issuance of foreign visas and the entry of Bangladeshi tourists and workers into Malaysia.
On 16 June 2023, MACC arrested 50 individuals, including 28 immigration officers and executives, 17 foreign workers and 5 civilians who were believed to be middlemen, as well as up to RM800,000 and 26 luxury vehicles including 4 high-powered motorcycles along with houses, land and jewellery.
During their investigation into the syndicate, MACC discovered a grade 19 immigration officer ‘owning’ a collection of four luxury vehicles including a Rolls-Royce Phantom which is said to be worth around RM6 million. It is believed that he owned all these cars by way of illegal activities and misusing stamps at the country’s main gate but evidently.
According to Wikipedia, the Immigration Department of Malaysia has a longstanding history of corruption, allowing for threats of terrorism and human trafficking to become significant problems for the country. Despite the Malaysian government's desire to promote an image of Malaysia as a progressive nation, widespread abuses of immigration controls since at least the 2000s have sullied that image.
On June 21, 2023 the Dewan Negara was told that 136 Immigration officers were found guilty between 2020 and last year of which 112 cases were for misconduct and 24 were for convictions by court.
Only 24 were convicted by the Courts when they caused millions of ringgit in losses to the government and posed a threat to national security?
Sadly, the focus is now centred on the possible abuse by the Minister for trespassing and other alleged infractions and the 1.2 million Chinese who apparently entered and had not left the country that could pose a security threat to the country instead of the issue on hand, which has been occurring and reported too frequently of late.
The then Minister of Home Affairs, when queried on 27 August 2022 by reporters, said the Home Ministry will soon clarify allegations – which never came - that 1.2 million Chinese nationals who had entered the country between 2018 and 2021.
These Chinese did not come into the country illegally.
They are not refugees who arrived in the boatloads. Unlike the 181,300 refugees and asylum-seekers comprising 157,100 are from Myanmar, comprising some 105,330 Rohingyas, 23,150 Chins, and 28,260 other ethnic groups from conflict-affected areas or fleeing persecution in Myanmar and the remaining individuals are some 24,200 refugees and asylum-seekers from 50 countries fleeing war and persecution, including some 6,900 Pakistanis, 3,370 Afghans, 3,150 Yemenis, 3,010 Somalis, 2,680 Syrians, 1,390 Sri Lankans, 690 Iraqis, 600 Palestinians, and others that are registered with UNHCR in Malaysia as of end May 2023.
Who lets them into the country if not those manning the entry and exit points in this country?
It is not easy for 1.2 million Chinese visitors to hide or disappear amongst the locals, even in places like KL, which has an official population of 1.8 million or Ipoh which has a population of 850,000 or Penang that has a population of only 1.6 million or in Melaka that has a population of 580,000 and Johor Bahru with a population of 500,000.
If they pose a potential threat to the security of this country, as preposterously alleged by some quarters now, those who manned the entry and exit points in this country and `allowed’ these people to come in earlier and allowed them to remain undocumented have actually committed a treasonous act against the country.
If those who said it is a matter of national security, where were you when the Special Branch Anti-Terrorism Division principal assistant director Datuk Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay, now the Deputy IGP, urged the Home Ministry to tighten existing visa regulations to deter foreign terrorists, mainly of Arab and African nationalities from using Malaysia as a transit point for their activities?
The irony of the recent event at KLIA is that this was not the 1st time the same issue was reported.
Why, despite the past history of those manning the main exit and entry to the country, the same issue still persists?
Hope the government focus on the main issue in this matter and not the issues created to divert attention away from it.
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