Civil servant detained for suspected trafficking of migrants

SUNGAI PETANI, Jan 13 -- A civil servant and a farm operator were arrested at a COVIC-19-related roadblock at the Gurun Toll Plaza, near here, early today for suspected involvement in the trafficking of migrants.

Kuala Muda district police chief, ACP Adzli Abu Shah said the 37-year-old male civil servant was found driving a car in a suspicious manner at 1.15 am and with four Indonesians aged 33 to 37, including a woman, inside the car.

"During the police inspection, the four Indonesians failed to produce any valid personal identification documents, hence they were also detained.

“About 30 minutes later, a farm operator, aged 44, arrived at the roadblock location and claimed that he had paid the civil servant to bring the foreign nationals from Kuala  Lumpur to Kedah before police arrested him as well,” he told reporters, here, today.

Adzli said based on the police investigation, the farm operator was suspected of having made a deal over the phone with one of the Indonesian migrants to come and work at his farm with a daily wage of RM45 to RM50 as his own workers had earlier quit.

"Then the man called his three friends to join him in Sik and work at the farm," he said, adding that the farm operator grew various types of vegetables, besides rearing fish and goats.

Adzli said the farm operator was believed to have agreed to pay RM1,000 to the civil servant to bring the foreign migrants with the advance payment of RM200 made online and the remainder to be paid when they reached Sik.

He said the case was being investigated under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act  2007, Section 6 (1) (c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 and Section 11 (5) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

-- BERNAMA