{"id":133842,"date":"2023-04-19T15:51:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T22:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=133842"},"modified":"2023-04-19T15:51:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T22:51:06","slug":"immigration-dept-busts-syndicate-trafficking-sri-lankan-kids-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/04\/19\/immigration-dept-busts-syndicate-trafficking-sri-lankan-kids-to-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Dept busts syndicate trafficking Sri Lankan kids to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Malay Mail<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 \u2014 The Immigration Department has busted a syndicate which used Malaysian international passports to smuggle Sri Lankan children to Europe, following the arrest of a local married couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said the couple were nabbed last Wednesday (April 12) when they turned up at the Kuala Lumpur Immigration headquarters to get a Malaysian passport for a Sri Lankan child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the \u2018Bahnu Internationals\u2019 syndicate made use of poor Malaysian parents with children under 12 to get the passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The syndicate would trick parents into bringing their child\u2019s birth certificate to the immigration office on the pretext of wanting to make a passport for the kid, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, during the application process at the immigration counter, a Sri Lankan almost the same age as the Malaysian child would be ushered to the counter instead to get their fingerprint and photograph taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once completed, the husband and wife, who are the syndicate\u2019s masterminds, would act as a \u2018transporter\u2019 by bringing the Sri Lankan child with a Malaysian passport to Europe,\u201d he said in a statement today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the immigration officer processing the passport application that day suspected something amiss when the guardian looked significantly different from the child, who could not speak Malay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it was learnt that the parents were paid RM500 for bringing their child to the immigration office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruslin said initial investigations showed the syndicate received 30,000 to 50,000 euros for each Sri Lankan child taken to Europe on Malaysian passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations are ongoing to find out how long this syndicate has been active and how many children were involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple, aged 37 and 26, were charged under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act (ATIPSOM) 2007 in the Sessions Court here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Immigration Department would like to advise the public not to be easily manipulated by offers and lies from such syndicates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone with doubts on immigration matters can refer to the department or obtain the latest information through its website and official social media accounts,\u201d he said. \u2014 Bernama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Malay Mail KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 \u2014 The Immigration Department has busted a syndicate which used Malaysian international passports to smuggle Sri Lankan children to Europe, following the arrest of a local married couple. Immigration director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said the couple were nabbed last Wednesday (April 12) when they turned up at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}