Woman hurt after climbing down balcony to avoid raid

PETALING JAYA: An illegal immigrant fashioned a rope out of blankets and climbed down the balcony of her first-floor flat in a desperate attempt to avoid capture during an Immigration operation.

Unfortunately, she did not get the soft landing she expected and was found moaning in pain from a pelvic injury on the ground floor.

It is learned that the 30-year-old woman did not have any travel documents with her and climbed down from the balcony on the advice of her husband, an E-Card holder.

The couple has been in Malaysia for about a year.

The husband works as a cleaner while his wife is believed to have worked as a maid for a household in the Lagoon Perdana Apartment blocks.

They have two young children in Bangladesh and shared the flat with four other Bangladeshi workers who are employed as cleaners and plumbers.

The woman was taken to the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre for treatment.

In Wednesday night’s operation at the apartment block and commercial area, Immigration Department officials sent more than 160 illegal immigrants to detention centres.

Many of them, like the injured woman, did not have proper travel documents or had abused their respective documents.

In a press conference, Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the latest raid brought the number of illegal immigrants caught in a nationwide operation since the beginning of July to 10,000.

The department has been rounding up illegal immigrants after the E-Card registration deadline on June 30. The raids started at midnight on July 1.

“During this period, we also took action against 246 employers who hired illegal immigrants,” Mustafar said.

Of the 10,000, more than 2,700 illegal immigrants have been brought to court.

“We also plan to improve the special courts that hear illegal immigration cases,” he said.

Mustafar added that this was necessary to expedite repatriation and other action taken against illegal immigrants to reduce their numbers.

He also gave a stern warning to locals who allowed illegal immigrants to misuse their business premises.

“In one of our raids, we found a laundromat being used as a front for a vice den frequented by immigrants,” he said.

Mustafar said an integrated effort by law enforcement authorities should also be made to permanently close down such outlets.