KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A total of 20,297 illegal immigrants detained at immigration depots in the country were deported to their countries of origin from early January to July 24 this year, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
He said that those deported consisted of 5,613 Indonesians; Myanmar (3,990); Bangladesh (2,664) and the rest are citizens from several other countries.
The Immigration Department has implemented deportation and repatriation of illegal immigrants to the countries of origin to prevent too many of them in the country, he said when winding up the debate on the motion of thanks for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s royal address at the Dewan Rakyat sitting here today.
He also said that continuous enforcement actions were also implemented to address the issue of illegal immigrants in the country, including strengthening the entry control of foreigners through several levels of strict screening.
“The Home Ministry through the Immigration Department has conducted 4,400 operations and detained 18,092 illegal immigrants from early January to July 23.
Hamzah said immigration officers were also authorised at the country’s entry points to check the validity of travel documents, passes or permits, purpose and history of entry, before determining the length of time the foreigner to be allowed to stay in the country.
“Preliminary and security screenings are conducted on all foreigners entering Malaysia using a database system integrated with various enforcement agencies.
“Among them are checks through the Immigration suspect list as well as via the stolen and lost travel documents (SLTD) system by Interpol and the collection of foreign biometrics data for entry into the country for Immigration Department records,” he said.
— NNN-BERNAMA