MIRI: The Immigration Department of Malaysia Sarawak Branch, Miri Division, has uncovered a document forgery activity involving the Temporary Employment Visit Pass (e-PLKS), allegedly orchestrated by a local employer.
The activity was uncovered during an enforcement operation carried out on July 9 at 2:35 pm involving 30 officers.
State Immigration Department Director, Abdul Halim Abang Naili, said that acting on intelligence from its enforcement unit, a team found a factory producing and printing road signage and discovered 24 Indonesian nationals working on-site.
“Further inspection of the company’s office revealed suspicious documents, including passport cover copies bearing the same identity details but with different photographs, and illegally modified e-PLKS documents – particularly in the photo sections.
“Officers also found a digital folder labelled ‘dummy’ which contained various passport and e-PLKS copies suspected to have been forged,” he said in a statement.
He added that initial investigations showed that 13 workers possessed genuine and valid e-PLKS documents.
“However, these documents had been misused and falsified by the employer for the benefit of 34 other workers who were also registered as employees at the premises,” he said, adding that some of these workers were not present during the raid.
“The forgery is believed to have been carried out to facilitate the daily movement and routine matters of the foreign workers, including identity verification and access to basic services,” he said.
The employer, he said, a local woman, admitted her involvement in falsifying passports and e-PLKS details in order to conceal the true status of her workers, and has since been detained to assist with the investigation.
“Among the items seized were a computer, several pendrives, a punch card machine, salary vouchers, foreign workers’ passports, and multiple physical folders and digital files containing suspected forged documents,” he said.
He said that a total of 19 male Indonesian illegal immigrants were also detained at the Bekenu Immigration Depot for further investigation.
The case is being investigated under Section 56 (1) (i) and Section 56 (1) (l) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amendment 2002).
