KOTA BARU: Two enforcement officers are under investigation for allegedly colluding with agents to allow tourists to bypass inspection procedures at one of the state’s Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security (ICQS) complexes.
Sources revealed that the officers are suspected of permitting Thai nationals to make U-turns at the border facility without following the proper protocols.
“The officers allegedly worked with certain agents to facilitate the movement of travellers, raising concerns over potential abuse of power and breach of duty. Both are now being investigated by the agency’s Integrity Unit,” said the sources.
The investigation aims to determine whether the officers received any inducements in exchange for allowing travellers to pass without the required checks.
Regarding the recent detection of a fake immigration stamp, the sources said that the case remained under investigation.
On Aug 6, Kelantan Immigration uncovered a new border scam involving “counter setting” after arresting nearly 40 Thai nationals, shortly after a report revealed that the “flying passports” scandal continued to persist in the state. The discovery was made during an operation in Rantau Panjang.
These individuals entered the country by submitting their passports at the counter to be stamped. However, their re-entry took place during the mandatory seven-day “cooling-off” period after their initial stay on a social visit pass had lapsed, in violation of a directive from the Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban.
The counter officers at the ICQS complex failed to comply with this directive.
Although the entries and exits technically adhered to the Immigration Act, the issue lay in the officers’ non-compliance with the official instruction prohibiting visitors from re-entering Malaysia before the seven-day cooling-off period.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
