A total of 17,869 illegal immigrants have been detained by the Immigration Department from Jan 1 to yesterday.

Its director-general Mustafar Ali said the detainees were the results of 6,019 enforcement operations conducted during the period.

“Apart from that, 455 employers were also nabbed for employing and harbouring illegal immigrants,” he said in a statement today.

Mustafar said the illegal immigrants comprised 6,315 Indonesians, Bangladeshis (3,403), Filipinos (1,956), Myanmar (1,748) and the remaining number from other countries.

For the Rehiring Programme, Mustafar said 744,942 illegal immigrants and 83,919 employers had registered for the programme from Jan 1 to last night.

From the total, 482,535 were Bangladeshis, Indonesians (118,115), Myanmar (43,860), Indians (32,992) and the remaining number from other countries, he said.

Under the voluntary surrender programme or 3+1 programme, he said 92,280 illegal immigrants had registered and returned home during the same period.

“From the total, 53,129 illegal immigrants were caught for overstaying while 39,151 illegal immigrants were found not possessing valid passes or permits,” he said.

According to him, the Immigration Department is committed to the call by the new Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to combat the illegal immigrant issue in the country.

“The department has taken all necessary measures and actions without comprise to combat the issue of illegal immigrants and foreign offenders,” said Mustafar. - Bernama