30 with fake visas held

KUALA LUMPUR: Thirty foreign construction workers were detained by the Immigration Department yesterday for possessing fake visas.
They were nabbed by the department's "Black Hawk" squad at a construction site in Jalan Kuda Lari, off Jalan Tun Razak, at 2.30am.Immigration Department enforcement director Datuk Ishak Mohamed said the workers were found hiding in the half-completed underground car park of the building under construction, together with about 70 others who were not detained."We believe the workers were cheated by their employers. They were given fake immigration cards. The employers lied to them, saying their visas had been renewed."He said the immigration card contained a picture of the worker, name, occupation and address of workplace.
Checks revealed the men, from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal, had been working at the site for between two and 10 months.Investigations revealed the workers entered the country legally and worked at plantations and factories before they were lured by the contractor.Ishak said the workers were paid between RM1,000 and RM1,200 monthly, but they had to work daily. The salary is slightly higher than their previous pay in the two sectors.He said the detainees were now in the department's Putrajaya lockup.