GOF catches 18 illegal immigrants during Ops Benteng

KUCHING: The General Operations Force (GOF) caught 18 illegal immigrants during Ops Benteng on Jan 30-31.

GOF Sarawak Commander SAC Mancha Ata said two locals and a foreigner – suspected to be the middle men who helped smuggle the foreigners across the border – were also arrested during the operations.

“The first case on Jan 30 at around 7pm, our team detained a car along Jalan Serian-Sri Aman and found four illegal foreigners inside the vehicle.

“Further checks found only the foreigner driver suspected to be the middle man had valid documents, whereas three others failed to produce any valid documents,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The second case at around 3.30pm on the same day involved an operation conducted at Kampung Pasir Tengah, Lundu.

“In the operation, our men had arrested five illegal foreigners hiding in a house suspected to be their transit point.

“Further checks found that all of them had entered the country through an illegal route. They were then asked to turn back to their own country,” Mancha said.

The third case in Tebedu, Serian was also on Jan 30.

“The operation team, while doing their patrols, came across two men who acted suspiciously. Further checks on them found that both were illegal foreigners and were asked to turn back to their own country via ICQS Tebedu,” Mancha said.

The fourth case reported on Jan 31 saw the patrol team detain a vehicle in Tebedu, Serian around 9am.

“When checks were made, it was found that the driver and one of the passengers were locals whereas four others, including three women, were foreigners.

“Further checks found two locals, aged 30 and 50, were suspected to be the middle men who tried to traffic four illegal foreigners,” Mancha said.