Immigration officers go door-to-door to check on illegal maids

KOTA KINABALU: Immigration officers have begun friendly ''door-to-door” visits in housing areas to caution the public against employing foreign maids illegally.

The teams led by state Immigration Department enforcement chief Dairin Unsir distributed pamphlets advising people that employing foreigners without proper immigration passes was an offence under the immigration laws.

The ''friendly” visits under Ops Pintu at the Kingfisher park housing area comes ahead of an anticipated nationwide crackdown against illegal immigrants.

''We are just informing the people on the law governing the employment of foreigners. It refers to the common offences committed by locals when employing foreigners,” Dairin said, adding that they did not take any action during their visits to the houses.

However, he said the teams also carried out checks at construction sites and squatter colonies to weed out illegal immigrants in the Kota Kinabalu area during the three-day operations that began on Monday.

During the operation, a total of 394 people were checked and they found 132 Indonesian and Philippines nationals who had contravened the Immigration Act, including some without any legal pass to be in Sabah.

''The offences were under the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amendment 2002) and Passport Act 1966, he added.

He said all those detained had been remanded for further investigations. - The Star