SERIAN: The General Operations Force (GOF) 11th Battalion foiled two human trafficking bids involving 12 Indonesians in an operation codenamed ‘Ops Benteng Covid’ on Monday (June 28).
District police chief DSP Aswandy Anis stated that the first case involved the arrests of two locals and 11 Indonesians around 5pm.
Two suspicious vehicles were detained by the GOF team for inspection by the roadside at Kampung Tebakang Dayak.
“It led to the discovery of 11 immigrants, comprising of three men and four women aged between 22 and 43 as well as four children aged between 1 and 12, inside the vehicles.
“Further investigations also found that the immigrants did not have any valid identification documents.
“They had entered Sarawak illegally via a rat trail in Malikin, Serian and they were bound for Bintulu,” he said.
The local drivers, believed to be ‘tekongs’ (agents) aged 34 and 37 years, were detained under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling (Atipsom) Act 2007 and remanded under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) to facilitate investigations.
Meanwhile, the Indonesians are detained under the Immigration Act for entering the state without travel documents.
Aswandy said the second arrest happened in the Tetangga Akrab oil palm plantation around 7.40pm when a suspicious vehicle driven by a 33-year-old ‘tekong’ was detained for inspection.
“The GOF team found a 29-year-old Indonesian man in the vehicle and he did not have any identification document on him.
“Both were arrested and taken to the police station for further investigation under the AtipsomAct 2007 and the Immigration Act,” he said.
Aswandy assured that operations to curb the entry of immigrants, would be tightened and continuously held to control illegal entries.
