PADANG BESAR: The Perlis Immigration Department has detained 27 foreign traders including six from Thailand in three separate operations through the Op Belanja after they were believed to have misused their social visit passes to work and trade in Padang Besar.
Director of Perlis Immigration Basri Othman said all of them, aged between 21 and 52 years, were detained in the operations conducted on Oct 3, 19 and 20.
He said during the operations, the foreign traders pretended to be tourists in order to dupe the authorities.
He said intelligence work by the department found that locals had rented out their trading spots to foreigners at a fee ranging from RM500 to several thousand ringgit.
“Further investigations found that there were employers who paid these foreigners to look after their trading spots as they had other premises to man,” he said in a statement today.
Basri added that the Immigration Department had identified the trading locations controlled by ‘tonto’ (look-outs) to help the Thai nationals escape.
All those detained were held for 14 days under Section 51 (5)(b) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (amended 2002) and taken to the Immigration Department depot in Kangar. — Bernama
