PUTRAJAYA: A total of 54 illegal immigrants, caught during the Immigration Department's large scale Ops Mega, were charged at Sepang Sessions Court today.
The immigrants who were largely from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar were charged for various wrongdoings such as not possessing valid travel documents, or for overstaying, or abusing their visit passes under Section 6(1)(c) and Section 15 (1) (c) of Immigration Act 1959/1963 and Rule 39(b) Immigration Regulations 1963.
They were sentenced to between one and three months’ jail, with some fined RM800 for being in the country without valid documents by Magistrate Saifulakmal Mod Said Hakim.
Out of 54, 25 of the illegal immigrants were detained by the department during raids carried out at several locations in Shah Alam while the remaining 29 in raids in Putrajaya.
They all pleaded guilty to the charge when read out by court interpreters before Saifulakmal, who ordered them to serve the jail sentence in Kajang prison from the date of their arrest.
The Immigration Department went on nationwide manhunt beginning July 1, after the department did not grant any extensions on the deadline for the Enforcement Card or E-Card application.
As of last Monday, a total of 3,014 illegal workers; 2,429 male, 570 females and 15 children were detained since July 1.
Bangladeshi top the list with 1,160 arrested, followed by Indonesians (695), Myanmarese (231), Vietnamese (116), Thailand (111), Filipinos (95) and the remaining from various countries.
A total of 502 enforcement operations was carried in the first 10 days, screened more than 9,320 foreign workers.
The E-Card drive saw 155,580 foreign immigrants applying for the cards and total of 140,746 E-Cards has been issued.