KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 451 employers and 26,785 illegal immigrants had been arrested since January until Nov 17 this year, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.

He said they were nabbed in 4,893 operations conducted by the Immigration Department nationwide.

The operation would always be carried out constantly and consistently in order to flush out illegal immigrants, he said at the International Conference on Law, Order and Criminal Justice 2014, here.

His speech text was read by the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohamad Khalid Shariff.

Ahmad Zahid said Malaysia’s stability and good economy were the main reasons for the influx of foreign workers, and although it brought benefits to the country to a certain extent, it also posed a great challenge to the government.

“This includes the issue of illegals which leads to the rise in crime such as burglary, sexual crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and even human trafficking,” he said.

The two-day international conference themed ‘Criminal Justice System in the 21st Century: Spirit, Form and Challenges’, involves nearly 90 authors and co-authors from seven countries presenting 64 working papers on the development of their criminal justice and legal system.

Resource : New Straits Times