SHAH ALAM: In a bid to evade detection, several foreign workers ran and tried to hide among boxes following a raid on two warehouses here.
The workers, however, were detected and caught by quick-acting Immigration Department personnel.
Immigration Department deputy director-general (operations) Jafri Embok Taha said 78 enforcement officers from the Immigration Department headquarters and Selangor Immigration Department took part in the raids.
"We monitored the two warehouses along Jalan Sri Gambut near Jalan Kebun here for some time before conducting the raid.
"Our checks revealed the warehouses were used as a sorting and packaging facility for items purchased online.
"We checked a total of 87 individuals here which led to the detention of 37 foreigners," he told reporters at the scene on Monday.
He said the offences they detected included not having valid documents and overstaying and misuse of visitor passes.
"The 37 detained comprised of 17 Bangladeshis, five Indonesians, 12 Myanmar citizens, two Nepalese and one Sri Lankan.
"29 of those detained were men while the remaining eight were women," he said, adding that those detained would be brought to the Immigration Detention Depot for further investigations.
He said they would also issue a notice to the employer to come and facilitate further investigations.
"We want to remind employers to only hire foreign workers legally.
"Failure in doing so can lead to them being held liable for hiring and sheltering illegal immigrants," he said, adding that this year alone they have taken action against 1,018 employers and detained 31,196 illegal immigrants.
He also urged employers to only deal directly with his department in applying for and renewing passes for foreign workers.
"The Immigration Department has never appointed any agents to conduct such applications.
"Based on our observations from several raids, many of these foreigners told us that their documents were being held by agents who were appointed to deal in the renewal or application process," he said.