SEVENTY-TWO foreigners were arrested in an Op Patuh operation conducted by the Immigration Department and police in Pudu yesterday.

Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said they raided a building at 5pm and checked 245 people, 72 of whom were found to have committed various immigration offences, including not having valid travel documents.

Those arrested comprised 43 men and 29 women, aged between 25 and 50 and of different nationalities, he said in a statement today.

He said the building, believed to be a prostitution den, was in squalid conditions, with the lifts and corridor and staircase lights not working properly.

“Enforcement officers had to break down doors because most the occupants refused to cooperate and hid inside the units with the lights switched off,” he said.

“Some of the immigrants hid in spaces created out of renovated walls and tried to flee but failed.”

He said all those arrested had been taken to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Depot after undergoing Covid-19 tests.

They are being investigated under the Immigration Act 1959/63, Passport Act 1966 and Immigration Regulations 1963. – Bernama, July 4, 2021.