21 nabbed in raids on KK and Penampang nightspots

KOTA KINABALU: Twenty-one foreign nationals have been arrested by Immigration Department enforcement officials at two entertainment outlets in the city here and neighbouring Penampang district here.

Sabah Immigration director Sh Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said the simultaneous raids under Ops Gegar were carried out at midnight Sunday (March 16) after three weeks of surveillance.

In a statement on Monday (March 17), she said the first raid was carried out at a nightclub here and they detained six Vietnamese women and a Filipino man.

The operation at Penampang saw the arrest of 14 foreigners: two Filipino men, five Filipino women, five Indonesian men and two Indonesian women.

Sitti Saleha said the teams also seized business licences, rental agreements, two logbooks, and RM3,957 in cash from the premises as part of their investigation.

She said the detainees would be investigated for various immigration offences, including misuse of their visit passes, failure to produce identification documents, and overstaying.

She said that so far this year, 1,271 foreigners had been arrested for various offences and 2,472 undocumented migrants had been deported.

“Immigration enforcement remains a priority to uphold national security and sovereignty,” she said, and urged the public to report any suspected cases of undocumented foreigners being hired or staying in the area.