Chaos broke out at the Meru Central Market Complex in Klang on Saturday (February 22), as the Selangor Immigration Department raided the premises at 5am, leading to over 600 foreigners getting detained.
According to a report by Berita Harian, the Deputy Director-General of Immigration Malaysia (Operations), Jafri Embok Taha, shared that more than 600 foreigners were checked and detained for various offences while 32 were released after getting checked.
A total of 630 foreigners, including illegal immigrants (PATI), were detained. Out of the 630 foreigners, 628 were men and 2 women aged between 17 and 57 years old, consisting of 530 Myanmar nationals, 85 Bangladeshis, 9 Indonesians, 5 Indians and 1 Nepali national.
“All of them will be placed at the Semenyih Immigration Depot for further action and investigation,” he explained.
Illegal immigrants rented stalls from local tenants
It was also discovered that some local market tenants were illegally sub-letting their stalls to foreigners.
“The results of the inspection also found that there were illegal immigrants doing business by owning their own stalls, in addition to renting from the original tenants in the market,”
“In fact, further investigations found that the rental rates charged by the original tenant to the foreigners were very high and multiplied many times,” he added.
Another report by Berita Harian revealed that local traders who sublet their stalls to foreigners will be blacklisted by the Royal City Council of Klang (MBDK), as business activities at government premises can only be carried out by locals with valid licenses while foreign workers must have valid permits.
“If we find that the business premises are rented out or ‘distributed’ to foreigners without the Council’s approval, in terms of police, we can take action to cancel the license and terminate the tenancy of the owner or trader involved,”
“If the usual rental payment rate to the Council is RM100, it is possible that they can get rental payments of up to RM500 from foreigners,” shared Klang Mayor, Datuk Abd Hamid Hussain.
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