‘Bus Stand Klang’ Raided, Foreigners’ Weekend Disrupted

KLANG: The peaceful atmosphere around the ‘Bus Stand Klang’ area here, which becomes a gathering spot for foreigners on weekends, turned chaotic when it was raided by the Selangor Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) today.

A MalaysiaGazette survey that followed the Op Mega operation which began at 12 noon found that some foreigners attempted to flee, even willing to roll on the road to avoid being caught by enforcement officers.

Not only that, some foreigners were found in a drunken state and were willing to lock themselves behind refrigerators, forcing enforcement officers to break down the shutter door.

During the raid, MalaysiaGazette journalists also discovered a hotel believed to be a prostitution location with 20 rooms, along with various sexual items such as condoms and lubricants.

Inspection found that the premises offered room rentals at RM20 per hour and RM40 per day, and even found a 32-year-old Myanmar man locked in the toilet, believed to have been desperate to relieve himself.

What was even more shocking was that the middle of the city centre was also contaminated by a foul smell with the sale of beef without following food handling standards, such as leaving meat and cow heads on the floor.

In the operation, more than 1,000 foreigners consisting of Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Myanmar nationals, Nepalese and Indians were detained and inspected, in addition to dozens of business premises such as food, clothing and phone accessories believed to be operated by foreigners.

What was more concerning was that a stall selling betel leaves was found to be distributing suspected syabu drugs hidden in folds of RM1 notes, in addition to the sale of contraband cigarettes and unlicensed liquor.

Based on information from a local man in the area, he claimed that the stall was said to be selling syabu together with betel leaves among foreigners.

“The suspect was detected using the tactic of selling betel leaves to deceive the authorities, but secretly they also offered syabu,” he said when met by reporters.

Meanwhile, a local visitor, Ken, 26, said that every weekend, the area often becomes a ‘port’ for thousands of foreigners to gather, relax and shop.

“I always come here to buy things and indeed on weekends there are many foreigners here. They buy things, meet friends on their days off. If you ask about fear, there is some, but they don’t bother us,” he explained.

There was even a visitor, a Bangladeshi national, Morsid Alam, 33, a PhD student at a public university, who was found buying flight tickets to return to his hometown ahead of the semester break next month.

“I live in Serdang Raya and I am a full-time student, currently in my second semester of studies. I came here to buy things and flight tickets from a travel agent for next month. I will return here again in October,” he said.

Observations by MalaysiaGazette journalists at the location found that some illegal immigrants tried to escape and acted aggressively when they saw the presence of JIM, in addition to pleading to be released.

It is understood that all those detained have been taken to the Selangor Immigration Office for documentation processes for investigation under the Immigration Act 1959/63.

Earlier, the operation was conducted by JIM Selangor in collaboration with the Putrajaya Immigration Headquarters and other states, as well as other agencies, namely the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN), the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) and the National Registration Department (JPN).

MalaysiaGazzete