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Human Trafficking Attempt Foiled In Labuan
By Rosli Abidin Yahya

Labuan - Six Chinese women, using fake South Korean passports, who were on their way to Brunei to eventually fly off to a Western country, were arrested by Malaysian immigration officials in Labuan last week.

The arrest blew the cover of an international human trafficking syndicate exploring new routes as countries in the region, including Brunei, are trying to plug the holes to squeeze out the syndicates.

Malaysian Immigration Department enforcement chief Datuk Ishak Mohamad said the South Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had confirmed that the women's passports were genuine though their photos had been changed, The Star reported.

"We believe that syndicates are searching for new routes after their other routes were uncovered by us," Ishak said, adding that previously Miri in Sarawak was used as an entry point.

He said the Miri route was uncovered in early January with the arrest of nine women from China at the KL International Airport. They were on transit to a third country upon arrival from Sarawak.

Ishak said that on Feb. 27, his officers in Penang arrested four Chinese women and two men for using false South Korean passports to go to Cape Town in South Africa via Singapore.

Without discounting the possibility of a local syndicate working with international peers, he said the same modus operandi was used by all those arrested.

Usually, they arrived from Shanghai using genuine passports but while in Malaysia they changed passports and identified themselves as South Korean nationals, he added.

He claimed South Koreans did not require visas to enter Brunei unlike tourists from China who have to obtain visas.

Asked what he thought was the motive for the women from China to travel to third countries, Ishak said he could not tell for certain but all of them were young and pretty.

On the latest arrest in Labuan, Ishak said the Chinese nationals would be detained for investigation before being handed over to their embassy for deportation.

Last year, Brunei Darussalam introduced the new Trafficking and Smuggling of Persons Order 2004, which upon conviction carries a fine not exceeding $1 million, imprisonment term of riot less than four years and not more than 30 years and not less than five strokes of the cane. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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