KUALA LUMPUR: City police have arrested 166 foreigners for failing to produce valid travel documents in a massive joint-operation conducted over two days.
City police chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Mazlan Lazim today said police and the Immigration Department inspected 505 foreigners on July 5 and Thursday at various spots in the city before detaining 150 men and 16 women from 13 nations.
He said Bangladeshis and Myanmars were the highest number among those held.
“We view seriously the influx of foreigners without proper travel document especially those from African nations who contribute to crime occurrences in the country,” Mazlan said.
“Among those we held were 17 foreigners from African nations. We will continue such operations to address the high number of illegal foreigners here and also to lower the high crime rates caused by them. We urge the public to channel information related to this to us.”
Mazlan said all those held were taken to the Jinjang central lock-up for further investigations.
A total of 329 personnel from the police and Immigration Department were involved in the operation.
On Tuesday, a Nigerian PhD student of the Lim Kok Wing University here died while in custody at an immigration detention centre in Bukit Jalil.
Thomas Orhions Ewansiha, 33, had suffered a seizure during sleep and the authorities are waiting for the post-mortem report on the cause of his death.
Immigration Department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said Ewansiha was arrested on July 4 after he tried to flee from personnel during the operation.
He said although the doctorate student had later produced valid travel documents, he was held as his attempt to escape raised doubts about the authenticity of his travel papers.
Khairul said the man had received medical treatment and did not inform officials he suffered from any ailment.
His death caused an uproar among the African community here who held a protest outside the Nigerian High Commission here on Thursday.
