5 Myanmar nationals held for running UNHCR card forgery ring

The immigration team seized a number of forged UNHCR cards believed to have been sold for RM5,000 each. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The immigration department in Johor has detained five Myanmar nationals on suspicion of running a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card forgery ring.

The arrests were made during a raid on a shophouse in Kluang on Wednesday, said Johor immigration director Rusdi Darus.

He said the four men and a woman, aged between 26 and 49, who were believed to be running the scam, were apprehended following surveillance and monitoring, Bernama reported.

“The group is believed to have been active for the past five to six years.

“Their targets were ethnic Rohingya, who came to Kluang to seek employment and faced travel document issues. The fee for the forged cards was RM5,000 each,” he told reporters here today.

Two Myanmar passports, several UNHCR cards and registration forms and RM15,855 in cash were seized during the operation.

The immigration team also found three Myanmar men, aged 35 to 49, who had apparently been confined in a building for two weeks.

In a separate raid, Rusdi said they broke up a human trafficking gang with the arrest of five Indonesian men, aged 21 to 49, at an oil palm plantation workers’ quarters in Mersing this morning.

He said the officers staked out at the plantation for four hours before apprehending the men, some of whom had hidden under their beds.

He said the house was believed to have been used as a transit point for smuggling foreigners into the country by sea.

“The gang charged RM3,000 per person for this service, with an additional RM100 for delivery to the transit house before being sent to other locations,” he said.