KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — The government has assured that there is tight control at the country’s borders through the implementation of Op Benteng to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants especially during the current Covid-19 situation.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the country’s borders are safe and efforts to curb the entry of illegal immigrants were being carried out by security forces led by the Malaysian Armed Forces.
“We are strictly controlling the national borders and technically the doors (the borders) are only open to professionals and certain categories…for travel, we do not allow,” he said at a press conference on the development of the recovery movement control order (RMCO) and the conditional MCO (CMCO) here yesterday.
He was commenting on public outrage over the arrests of 27 Immigration officers for their alleged involvement in a syndicate that had misused entry and exit stamps at the country’s main borders.
Ismail Sabri said the arrests did not portray the overall image of the department.
It was reported that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has crippled a syndicate misusing entry and exit stamps at the country’s main borders following the arrest of 46 individuals including 27 Immigration officers in a large-scale operation on Monday.
The special sting operation known as ‘Op Selat’ was carried out in collaboration with the Immigration Department through intelligence gathering and monitoring and the country’s entry and exit points, especially at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), KLIA2 and the Sultan Ismail Building in Johor Bahru.
— Bernama
