News from Malaysia Paper: Passport

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Subject: News from Malaysia Paper: Passport to detention centre for

Myanmars seeking fake papers 
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-------Phoenix-Boundary-07081998-
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Passport to detention centre for Myanmars seeking fake papers 

Saturday, June 26, 1999


By Jalina Joheng

KUALA LUMPUR, Fri. - Ignorance may be bliss but it turned out sour for 
seven Myanmars who had naive hopes of becoming Malaysian citizens through 
forged identity cards and work permits.

They had walked into a house in Kampung Cheras Baru here thinking they 
could get the fake documents for which they were prepared to pay about 
RM2,500 each.

It turned out that the house had been raided four days earlier and they had 
walked into the waiting arms of the police.

The seven who had turned up at 2.45am on Wednesday without knowing that the 
syndicate had been busted last Saturday and news of this was over 
television on Tuesday night.

Had the Myanmars watched the news bulletin on television about six hours 
earlier, they would not have found themselves in such a fix.

The TV news bulletins had highlighted the arrest of two syndicate members 
and six Myanmars and the seizure of an assortment of forged 
Government-issued documents last Saturday - at the same house!

A police team led by Chief Inspector Yusof Saad detained the foreigners, 
aged between 22 and 30, before seizing a forged Malaysian IC from one of 
them.

The seven are now at the Machap Umboo immigration detention centre. Their 
arrest brings to 13, the number of Myanmars detained since last Saturday, 
who had turned up to 'buy' forged Government-issued documents at the house.

Cheras police chief Assistant Commissioner Ali Hanafiah said today that 
they had expected foreigners, especially Myanmars, to turn up at the house 
to buy the forged documents.

"We are working closely with the Immigration Department to check on the 
possibility of an 'inside job' which facilitated the syndicate to produce 
the forged documents."

Last Saturday, police arrested the eight men, including six Myanmars, when 
they raided the house and seized among others, a desktop computer, 177 
forged foreign workers' pass, 80 Immigration Department logos, 13 rubber 
stamps used by Immigration officers in Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar and 

Malaysia for entry purposes, five forged identity cards, four forged work 
permits and four road tax discs.

They also seized 48 original unused Immigration Department receipts, 10 
original Myanmar and Thailand issued passports, eight international driving 
permits and eight diskettes which contained copied images of original 
Government-issued documents without photographs of applicants.





-------Phoenix-Boundary-07081998---