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Malaysian Crackdown on Illegals

Many Bangladeshis among 500 held

Star Report
Over 500 undocumented migrants, including Bangladeshis, were rounded up in Malaysia yesterday, the first day of a major crackdown against irregular migrants, reports Malaysian daily The Star.
The crackdown came after a government deadline for irregular migrant workers to go back to their native countries expired on Thursday. Under an amnesty programme, the government had allowed the workers to return home by paying a fine worth 118,000.
Despite repeated attempts, The Daily Star could not confirm the number of the arrested Bangladeshis.
Adrian Pereira, executive director of North South Initiative, a rights body in Kuala Lumpur, said a good number of Bangladeshis might be among those held.
During the nationwide raid, more
than 5,000 foreigners were checked resulting in the arrests of over 500 illegals, Malaysia's Immigration Director-General Datuk Seri Mustafar Al i said at a press conference yesterday.
"We are fulfilling our pledge that we will go all out to nab illegal immigrants after the expiry of the amnesty programme," he added.
A Bangladeshi man and a Malaysian immigration officer were injured during a raid at a glove factory in Bandar Baru SalakTinggi in Sepang yesterday, reports Malaysian state news agency Bernama.
The Bangladeshi was injured as he fell down in an attempt to escape arrest
Immigration Officer Nur Erra Ellina Zaharudin, aged about 24, was injured as she fell down about five metres through the ceiling while chasing a female illegal migrant, said Mustafar.
The immigration DG said his department had conducted 9,527 operations from January 1 to August
30 when 116,927 foreigners were inspected and 29,177 of them arrested.
The undocumented migrants were from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, India and Nepal.
Nearly one million Bangladeshis have been working in Malaysia and around half of them could be undocumented, an official of the Bangladesh High Commission in Malaysia told The Daily Star recently.
Under a rehiring programme launched in early 2016, most of the irregular migrants applied for regulari-sation by paying RM 5,000 to 8,000 to some Malaysian companies and their agents, but most of them failed to get regularised, said Bangladeshi migrants.
Migrants and rights activists said the news of the crackdown has prompted fear among the undocumented Bangladeshis. Many of them stayed indoors yesterday while many others went into hiding.
Advocacy groups have criticised the Malaysian government for the crackdown and called for a halt to it.
Rights activist Adrian Pereira yesterday said a lot of the undocumented migrants became victims of human trafficking and abuses by their employers.
"The authorities should punish the exploiters, not the victims," he said.