A Malaysian husband and wife met the end of their crime spree after they were arrested for trafficking Sri Lankan children to Europe by the Immigration Department on Apr 12.
The couple were nabbed at the Kuala Lumpur Immigration headquarters while applying for a Malaysian passport for a Sri Lankan child.
Targeted children below 12 from poor families
According to a statement by Immigration Department director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh, the syndicate named ‘Bahnu Internationals’ mainly targeted Malaysian children below 12 years old who came from poor families.
Once they had identified their victims, the syndicate would then approach the parents and trick them into bringing their child’s birth certificate to the immigration office under the guise of making a passport for the child.
However, instead of the Malaysian child making the application, a Sri Lankan child who’s around the same age turns up and has his fingerprint and photograph taken.
“As for the couple, they acted as ‘transporters’ by bringing the Sri Lankan child who now had a Malaysian passport to Europe,” he said.
Couple arrested thanks to alert officer
Ruslin said that authorities were able to arrest the couple thanks to an alert officer at the immigration counter.
“While processing the passport application, the officer felt something was amiss after noticing that the guardian’s facial features were sharply different from the child’s, who could hardly converse in Malay.
“We also learnt that parents were paid RM500 for sending their children to the immigration office, while the syndicate raked in 30,000 to 50,000 euros for each Sri Lankan child successfully trafficked to Europe on Malaysian passports.”
The couple have since been charged in court today and will stay in Kajang prison until case mention on May 11 as immigration officers figure out how long the syndicate has been operating for and how many children were involved.
Ruslin advised Malaysians to always be wary of lucrative offers from syndicates and to contact the Immigration Department if they had any questions via its website and official social media accounts.
Back in February, a couple who had Datukship were nabbed for operating an illegal maid agency right from their home:
