174 Bangladeshis arrested in Malaysia

The country's immigration department has arrested 468 illegal immigrants, including 174 Bangladeshis, in Cameron Highlands, a tourist attraction and agricultural area in the state of Pahang, Malaysia.

They were detained for violating immigration laws and various crimes, the country's state news agency Bernama confirmed on Thursday afternoon.

The arrests include 175 from Myanmar, 174 from Bangladesh, 67 from Indonesia, 20 from Nepal and citizens of other countries. Most of those arrested were living and working in the region as laborers and farmers. The operation was conducted between 11 am and 2 pm in four zones around the Cameroon Highlands, involving business areas, construction sites and vegetable farms.

Bernama, which participated in the operation, found that most vegetable packing shops in the district employed foreign workers. At the time of the operation, most of the foreigners were busy packing vegetables. Due to this, they did not get a chance to escape. During this time, a total of 1,886 people's documents were checked, and 468 foreigners were detained for various immigration offenses, including possessing expired passes and lacking travel documents.