IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT DISMANTLES 'IQBAL' HUMAN TRAFFICKING SYNDICATE

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 18 (Bernama) -- The Immigration Department has crippled a migrant smuggling syndicate known as 'Iqbal' in a raid on a safe house yesterday.

Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the raid led to the arrests of 12 Bangladeshi nationals, comprising 11 men and a woman, aged 18 to 54, and a 27-year-old Rohingya man from Myanmar who acted as the premises’ caretaker.

“The premises were in a remote village, as a tactic to evade the authorities. It was used as a transit to house migrants who had recently been smuggled into the country,” he said in a statement today.

He explained that the raid was conducted by a special team from the Prevention Division at Immigration Headquarters in Putrajaya, in coordination with the Kelantan Immigration Department's Enforcement Division.

Initial investigations revealed that the migrants had entered the country illegally over the past three days, using unofficial land routes along the Malaysia-Thailand border.

They were being housed at the premises while waiting to settle outstanding entry fees before being transported to their final destinations.

“We are actively tracking the local owner of the premises, who is believed to have colluded with the syndicate by renting out the property to be used for migrant smuggling activities,” he said, adding that the case is being investigated under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.

He said investigations so far indicate the syndicate has been active since early 2024, operating through a network of coordinating agents in the migrants' countries of origin.

“The main mastermind is believed to be a Bangladeshi national known as 'Iqbal' who is operating from Thailand,” he said.

Each migrant was charged between RM10,000 and RM15,000, with total proceeds estimated at RM1.5 million.

He said the operation also adopted a victim identification approach among vulnerable groups in accordance with the National Guideline on Human Trafficking Indicators (NGHTI) 2.0.

-- BERNAMA