Malaysia Immigration Department has fired 15 officers for allegedly sabotaging the implementation of the Malaysian Immigration System.
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Sakib said the departmental probe found that the sabotage had begun in 2010 and involved a network masterminded by syndicates from overseas that made use of Malaysians, among them immigration officers.
Last week, a source told Anadolu Agency that the myIMMs system had been found to have been downed once a day, allowing manual screening by counter officers in two major global airports in capital Kuala Lumpur.
“The syndicate hacked or breached our system with the help of the involved immigration officers and it was able to control the movement of anyone entering or leaving the country”, he said.
“We will also be implementing the snake queue (immigration check queue) at the arrival and departure gates in the Kuala Lumpur International Aiport (KLIA)”, he told a press conference today.
Sakib added that another 20 personnel, believed to be involved directly or indirectly in sabotaging the Immigration system, were being monitored by the department’s intelligence division.
The arrests and disciplinary action follow an investigation into frequent crashes on computers connected to Interpol, which facilitates global police co-operation.
Human rights groups have questioned Malaysia’s efforts to combat human trafficking after the discovery of mass graves of suspected migrants near the border with Thailand past year.
Asked if the upgrading of the global Malaysian passport system had any relation to the sabotage case, Sakib said “probably yes”, as the system was also part of it.
It is believed that at least 100 immigration officers were involved with billions paid by syndicates to lower ranking staff and agents for people smugglers since 2010, putting our country’s security at high risk.
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Malaysia has an estimated two million illegal migrant laborers, many of whom work in the electronics, palm oil and construction sectors.
