78 Bangladeshis held in Malaysia

Malaysia arrested hundreds of undocumented migrants, including 78 Bangladeshis, as Kuala Lumpur launched a promised yearlong immigration crackdown after wrapping up an amnesty program where 190,000 foreigners agreed to leave the country.

Law-enforcement agents detained 474 foreigners, including 220 Indonesians, in a sweep targeting undocumented migrant workers after the five-month program that allowed them to turn themselves in ended on December 31, immigration chief Khairul Dzaimee Daud told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, reports Barnernews.org.

The Muslim-majority nation of 33 million people relies on laborers and domestic helpers from Southeast and South Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, for construction jobs and work on palm oil plantations.

Among the foreigners who were picked up were 78 Bangladeshis, 42 from Myanmar and 22 Filipinos, the immigration chief said.

In July last year, the Malaysian government announced its Back for Good (B4G) program, which allowed illegal workers to register and be repatriated voluntarily without facing legal action.

After obtaining identification documents from their embassies and showing plane tickets to their home countries, applicants were also required to pay a fee of 700 ringgit (U.S. $171) as a penalty for overstaying in the country, officials said.

Since last month, huge crowds of immigrant workers, including many from Cambodia, Nepal and India, had joined lines that snaked around the immigration building in Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital.

Khairul said immigration agents were aiming to arrest about 70,000 undocumented migrants who failed to take advantage of the government’s amnesty program. Those who are detained could face a minimum fine of 5,000 ringgit (U.S. $1,198) and could be sentenced up to 12 months in prison, if convicted.

He said 195,471 had registered under the B4G program and 165,000 had been deported.