More than 30,000 illegal immigrants detained across country this year

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KOTA KINABALU: The Immigration Department has detained 30,000 illegal immigrants from 1 Jan till Monday, its director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said.

He said over 1,000 employers were also detained during the period for employing or harbouring the illegals.

“The detentions are the result of more than 10,000 operations carried out nationwide with over 100,000 foreigners examined.

“We (Immigration) gave illegal immigrants the opportunity to surrender themselves voluntarily through the 3+1 programme which ended on Aug 30.

“In addition, we implemented the Rehiring Programme which was terminated on June 30. However, we still find many who do not adhere to the set procedures,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after the operation codenamed ‘Ops Mega’ here early yesterday, which was also joined in by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman. — Bernama