28 Bangladeshis held in Malaysia

Malaysian immigration department arrested 28 Bangladeshi citizens on Thursday for allegedly operating an unauthorised homestay service in Kuala Lumpur.

The officers raided “a high-end residential premises” around 11:45pm and seized Rm 29,000 and various documents related to the illegal business, reports The Star Online of Malaysia.

Immigration Director General Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali was quoted as saying that the raid was conducted following  media reports on the issue.

"We had the location under surveillance since 3:00pm on Thursday before moving in.

"We found that seven different companies were simultaneously carrying out the homestay business without permits."

Foreigners who ran the companies, rented up to 20 apartments for running their businesses, he said.

"The rooms are then rented out for as low as Rm 150 and payments are only made in cash.

"All of the detainees have been held for not having any proper travel documents," he said.

He also said the people, who worked there, did not have permission to work and the service was advertised online.

Malaysian Immigration Department on January 12 detained a Bangladeshi expatriate in a raid for allegedly running a trafficking gang.

On the same day, the immigration department of the country, after weeks of surveillance, raided a house in Shah Alam and found 50 Bangladeshis occupying it were mostly blacklisted by the department.

They had travelled from Dhaka to Jakarta, Indonesia and then took a boat to enter Malaysia illegally.

In December, 2017, a Bangladeshi film director was detained by the Malaysian police for alleged trafficking on the pretext of organising a cultural event.