PETALING JAYA: Police have rescued 137 foreign nationals, including children, believed to be victims of human trafficking in an operation codenamed Op Pintas Mega.
The operation, carried out by the anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling division (D3) of Bukit Aman’s criminal investigation department, also resulted in the arrest of 398 individuals, Sinar Harian reported.
Bukit Aman CID D3 principal assistant director Soffian Santong said the operation was conducted nationwide in two phases.
The first phase, carried out in January, involved 42 raids and resulted in the arrest of 285 individuals. From the raids, 64 victims were rescued, comprising 12 men, 22 women, 10 boys and 20 girls.
SPONSORED CONTENT Hajiji says young business professionals' inputs needed to develop Sabah Kota Kinabalu: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said he welcomed inputs from young business professionals to assist in policy formulation. Read more The second phase, in June, involved 33 raids with 113 arrests and saw 73 people rescued, comprising 25 men, 26 women and 22 boys.
Soffian said the majority of the victims were from Myanmar (35), followed by Thailand (25) and Indonesia (23).
"The remaining victims included 17 from Bangladesh, nine from the Philippines, eight from Malaysia, and five each from Cambodia, Vietnam and China, and two from Nepal. The remaining three were Rohingya," he said.
The operation, which targeted factory premises, plantations, fisheries, service sectors and beggars, involved cooperation from the immigration department, the labour department, the environment department, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, and local authorities.
Soffian said the police would not compromise on human trafficking crimes and would take strict legal action against those responsible, including detaining them under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
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