KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — The Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) raided an entertainment centre in Jalan Loke Yew yesterday night and arrested 164 illegal immigrants.
The centre, located inside a shopping mall, allegedly offers foreign guest relations officers (GRO) to customers for a fee ranging from RM1,000 to RM100,000.
Several women attempted to escape when the raiding party entered the premises, causing some to fall and injure themselves.
A search by the JIM team found several GROs hiding in toilets and a storeroom.
Kuala Lumpur JIM director Wan Mohamed Saupee Wan Yusoff said the 164 illegal immigrants arrested in the raid, which started at 11.45pm yesterday and ended at 1.30am today, were between 21 and 60 years old.
They comprised 114 Thai nationals, including a man; 12 Vietnamese; a woman from Laos, a Filipino woman, 27 Bangladeshi men, and nine Chinese nationals, two of them women.
Following the raid early today, he told the press they were arrested for various offences under the Immigration Act 1963.
Some of the women are holders of Long-Term Social Visit Passes or Spouse Passes, but they do not know where their husbands are. Saupee added that the owner of the premises and four caretakers were also arrested for allegedly employing and harbouring illegal immigrants.
The raid was conducted following two weeks of intelligence over complaints from the public of drunk customers from the entertainment centre creating a nuisance, including fighting, in the surrounding area.
Also involved in the raid were officers from the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission.
Meanwhile, in another operation, conducted at 10pm yesterday along Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Alor, 17 foreigners for carrying out hawking activities in the area.
He said they comprised eight Bangladeshi men, two Nepalese men, four Pakistani men, a Vietnamese man, and two women, comprising an Indonesian and a Filipino.
The foreigners, aged between 20 and 30, would be sent to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot for further action.
— Bernama
