07-05-2025
Kedah Immigration Dept rounds up 64 illegal foreign workers
Zuliaty Zulkiffli
ALOR STAR: The Kedah Immigration Department detained 64 illegal foreign workers, including two women, during a raid at two construction sites in Changlun and Kuala Kedah under Op Targeted Crackdown today.
Its director, Mohd Ridzzuan Mohd Zain, said the detained foreign workers committed various offences, including abusing work permits, overstaying their visas and lacking identification documents.
He said in the first raid in Changlun, the department inspected 25 foreign workers from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indonesia and arrested 22 of them.
"In the raid at the construction site in Kuala Kedah, we detained 39 foreign workers, including two women."
Ridzzuan reminded employers using foreign workers to seek approval from the department before transferring them to other states.
He said this was necessary to prevent foreign workers from being detained during inspections.
"In past operations, some foreign workers had passports, but were found to be misusing their work permits.
"If a worker was employed in one sector and moved to another state to work in a different sector, that individual has committed an offence and can be detained for the misuse of work permit.
"Many employers have been found to be negligent, risking action under Section 55E of the Immigration Act 1959/63."
He said the detained migrants were taken to the Kedah Immigration office in Anak Bukit for documentation.
