Firsthand Look At An Immigration Raid In A Prostitution Den - Malaysian Digest

[Exclusive] Firsthand Look At An Immigration Raid In A Prostitution Den

Earlier this year, the Immigration Department of Malaysia introduced the E-card (enforcement cards) system in the latest bid to get employers to register their current illegal workers to become legally registered temporarily.

This is to combat the burgeoning problem of illegal foreign workers in Malaysia, which has gotten progressively worse in recent years. According to the Ministry of Human Resources, it is estimated that around 6.7 million foreign workers are here in Malaysia, but only 2.1 million of the workers are legally registered, which means that the rest are all here illegally.

Malaysians are always complaining of foreign works taking up jobs that can go to honest hard-working locals, and let’s not get started on the social ills and the logistical problems that undocumented foreign workers can wreak upon our society if the problem is left unchecked.

The Immigration Department of Malaysia has to be ever vigilant in combating this problem and regularly conduct raids to weed out illegals.

Despite the Immigration Department’s Op Mega E-Card to weed out illegal foreign workers conducted in early July, the fact remains that the problem of illegal foreign workers is still rampant in Malaysia.

The authorities are still trying to get the rest of the foreign workers to be registered, so that they can at least be tracked in case they commit any crimes, and they can be properly documented as well.

During the introduction of the E-cards, the Director General of the Immigration Department Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali has stated that he targets around 600,000 illegal foreign workers to be registered under the new policy.

Sadly, less than 160,000 workers came up to register themselves.

This has spurred the Immgration Department to ramp up their efforts of conducting more frequent raids on otherwise untouched businesses.

Starting from the first of July this year, raids on construction sites have become an almost daily occurrence. The first 10 days of the operations on construction sites were really fruitful, with more than 3,300 illegal immigrants arrested, and 60 employers were also arrested.

So it’s safe to say that the raids are working, and Mustafar has stated that it will go on.

“"I want to stress that the operation will go on," said Mustafar.

"Surrender now, otherwise those who are arrested during raids will face the full force of the law."

But have you ever wondered what goes on in an immigration raid? We at Malaysian Digest were fortunate enough to be able to come along for a raid last Friday, and here’s what went down.

The First Step Is The Reconnaissance Period

Pic: Malaysian Digest

Contrary to what people might believe, an immigration raid process actually starts way before the actual date of the raid itself.

From our research, usually the Immigration raids will be planned based on reports from the public. If they receive enough reports from the public about a place, they will send their reconnaissance team.

Usually, this period will take at least one month, as enough information regarding the premises will be documented during this period.

The team usually is made up of two persons, and it will be their job to find out how many illegal immigrants are there, their working hours, their living quarters, the exit points of a building, and many more.

They will also be responsible to set a suitable rendezvous point, and all the alleyways that the team can use to get to the target location.

During this one month period, usually the reconnaissance team will act as customers and, they will frequent the premises once every two weeks, in order to gather information.

Once the information is gathered and collected, it will be passed on to the other departments, who will compile the information into a dossier, which will be used for the raid.

This time, their target was a four storey hotel located in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur. According to information gathered during the reconnaissance, the hotel houses 20 illegal immigrants working in a prostitution ring, led by the management of the hotel themselves.

So now that all the information has been collected, and the target has been identified, it’s time for the raid.

The Night Of The Operation

On the night of the operation, every officer that is involved in the operation will convene at least two hours before the raid, for a briefing session.

In this case, as the raid is scheduled to be started at around 10:45pm, the briefing started at 8:45pm.

During the briefing, the attending officers were separated into two squads, the assault squads and the cordon squad.

For this raid, 22 officers were involved.

In the assault squad, some of the officers are also assigned as the photographers of the raid,, and it will be their duty to take pictures of the raids, the evidence, and anything that they deem necessary to strengthen the conviction of those caught.

During the briefing, the chief of the operation will detail to the other officers the layout of the building, their entry points, and the possible exit points of the building.

The chief then divides the assault squad into four different teams, with each team being assigned their own floor of the building to cover.

Meanwhile, the cordon squad was assigned to exit points of the building, to ensure that none of the illegals can escape.

After the briefing is done, it is now time for us to get into the truck, and proceed to the target destination.

Although sometimes for more covert operations the truck will be parked further away from the target destination, this time a more full frontal approach was taken, and we were parked right in front of the hotel.

The moment we got off the truck, the chief of the operation immediately went to the receptionist counter and told them that they were conducting an immigration raid, and asked them to stay calm and cooperate if necessary.

Meanwhile, the assault squads quickly rushed up the stairs to their designated locations.

After that, each team proceeded with their inspection of the rooms on their designated levels.

From the inspection, they managed to nab six illegal immigrants, but this is a far cry from the reported 20 that should have been there.

Due to the unsatisfactory catch, they decided to run another inspection, but this time they inspected every single room there was in the hotel, to ensure that there was no one left hiding.

Usually, they don’t do this as it will disturb other innocent people in the hotel, but they felt like they needed to in order to not leave any stone unturned.

The second inspection revealed that the illegal immigrants were actually living in a room at the hotel, on the fourth floor.

When we stepped in the room, the air inside the room was still cold, indicating that the room was recently vacated.

A check in the bathroom and their cupboards also supported the fact that they were living there, as the bathroom was filled with sanitary items, and the cupboards were filled with contraceptives and clothes.

But still, there were no one there. A check at the windows revealed that they actually fled the room through the windows, using the air-conditioning ledges located on the side of the building.

From there, they made a run for it to the next building.

It was very unexpected and dangerous, as the room was on the fourth floor, and a fall will certainly mean broken bones, or worst, death.

But this also meant that the rest of the illegal immigrants are now on the lam, and there’s no real way for the squad to catch them.

So they proceeded with the inspection. It must have been a slow day at the hotel, as there were only a few actual legitimate clients staying in the hotel rooms.

After all of the rooms in the hotels were inspected, the team then proceeded to the rooftop of the hotel, where they found one more illegal immigrant working as the cleaner hiding there.

At the end of the raid, the team investigated 15 people, and arrested six of them.

Among the six, two of them were Indonesian, One of them was from Laos, two of them were from Thailand, and the last one was from China.

According to one of the immigration officers, usually the girls who are here for prostitution rings entered this country using a student or a tourist visa.

All of those who were arrested were brought to the Immigration Depot in Kuala Lumpur, for further screening processes.

After The Raid

After the raid, all of the illegal immigrants were brought to the depot for further screening and processing.

Here, they will be processed and documented, and will be kept until their case is called up in court.

Usually, after they are found guilty, they will spend 6-8 months in jail, before being deported to their own countries.

The Immigration Department faces a lot of scrutiny, especially regarding the way they treat illegals caught during raids in captivity.

But from what I saw on that night, they treated the women with care and respect, and only allowed them to be handled by women officers.

After the raid, a debriefing session was held, and the officers involved will produce the official report of the raid.

So judging from my experience taking part in the raids, it is not as easy as some people might think it is, and Immigration Department officers deserve more respect from the public for what they do and what they sacrifice in order to rid Malaysia of the illegal immigrants scourge.

Although this particular raid might not be that fruitful,, it was still a worthwhile one.

Even though the raid today might not have caught all the illegal immigrants in the hotel, there will be other opportunities to do so.

While there are many factors contributing to the dilemma of illegal workers in our country, at least the Immigration Department is ensuring that it does its duty in enforcement to the best of its ability.

After all, like the Director-General of the Immigration Department said, the raids “will continue until the last undocumented worker is purged.”

-mD