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PETALING JAYA, Feb 25 — As the nationwide crackdown on illegals intensifies, federal police yesterday revealed two Immigration officers from Sarawak were detained for selling Malaysian passports and human trafficking. The duo had apparently been working with an international human trafficking syndicate based in China and charged RM44,000 for each Malaysian passport. Investigators seized five Malaysian passports, five China passports, several mobile phones and RM44,000 from the officers in Miri. They were arrested together with seven others, including three China nationals. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said among those arrested were the main agent of the syndicate, two facilitators, a runner and three China nationals who were brought in to the country. “The snake head (main agent), two facilitators and the runner are Malaysians. They are key members of the syndicate,” he said. All nine were arrested between February 4 and February 24 in a special operation. He said the three China nationals were issued original Malaysian passports and had flown into the country through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The foreigners had paid RM44,000 each to obtain the passport from the syndicate. The foreigners were to have then used the same passport to travel to another country. The Immigration Department launched a massive nationwide crackdown on undocumented migrants under Ops Hari Hari on Friday. The Home Ministry had instructed law enforcement agencies to step up enforcement activities to ensure foreigners in the country had valid documents and worked in approved sectors. This came after the government decided to temporarily suspend the recruitment of foreign workers. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in announcing the freeze in foreign labour, said the suspension would stay until the government determined the amount of manpower needed by the various sectors in the country. Employers would be allowed to legalise their foreign workers provided they had entered legally and did not have a criminal record. Since Friday, 28,998 foreigners were screened during the operations, resulting in the arrest of 8,495 foreigners. Some 160 employers were also arrested for harbouring illegal workers while 8,646 foreigners have been deported.
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