30 overseas Vietnamese rescued in raid

Police have busted a human trafficking syndicate with the arrest of a 34-year-old Singaporean and the rescue of 37 foreigners.

Johor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff said the foreigners included 30 Vietnamese, four Indonesians and two Filipinos.

“We carried out a raid at a house in Taman Universiti at around 2am on Saturday,” he said, adding that the Singaporean had been put under remand while the rest were sent to Kuala Lumpur.

Out of the 30 Vietnamese, two were boys aged between 11 and 14 while the rest were aged between 20 and 49.

DCP Mohd Mokhtar said the foreigners had come into Malaysia via valid entry points and some even had valid passport stamps on their travel documents.

“Out of the 37, only 12 had passports, which expired recently. We believe that they were on transit to another country,” he said. The police believed the Singaporean was “managing” the foreigners.

Police were investigating the case under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.