Immigration Dept Ready To Work With AKPS To Address  Misconduct Among Staff – Zakaria

BUKIT MERTAJAM, Aug 6 (Bernama) -- The Immigration Department (JIM) is ready to cooperate with the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS)  to address issues of misconduct involving its staff,said JIM Director-General Datuk Zakaria Shaaban.

He said discussions will be held with the agency if there is a need to transfer problematic officers stationed at the country’s main entry points.

He explained that JIM has handed over full management of 22 key entry points in the country to AKPS, including Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), the Sultan Iskandar Building and Sultan Abu Bakar Complex in Johor, Penang International Airport (PIA), Kuching International Airport and Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

“However, we still have officers overseeing daily operations at the airports, so responsibilities such as counter setting and so on now fall under AKPS, while immigration officers provide support especially in intelligence, monitoring and related aspects.

“So if there’s any need for a reshuffle, we will hold discussions with AKPS to remove officers identified as being involved in misconduct. We will fully cooperate,” he told reporters after conducting an operation at a factory in Simpang Ampat here today.

He was responding to whether JIM would carry out a reshuffle of officers stationed at airports following the recent arrest of several officers believed to be involved in ‘counter setting’ activities.

Zakaria said the success of the recent operation was due to cooperation between JIM and AKPS, with JIM providing intelligence to the agency and emphasised that action against problematic officers is continuous, not seasonal.

“Monitoring of officers involved in wrongdoing is carried out at all times. Statistics from 2022 until now show a total of 147 disciplinary cases involving immigration officers, of which 55 resulted in dismissal,” he said.

As part of reform efforts, Zakaria said JIM is actively implementing digital transformation at the country’s entry points, including expanding the use of the autogate system to reduce direct interaction between officers and travellers, thereby lowering the risk of abuse of power.

Earlier, Zakaria said during the operation, a total of 749 foreign nationals were screened and 307 were detained for various offences under the Immigration Act 1959/1963.

Of the total, 306 were Bangladeshi nationals and one was Nepalese, all aged between 20 and 40, and were found to have violated their pass conditions.

He said all of them have been detained for further investigation and will be sent to the Jawi Immigration Detention Depot.

-- BERNAMA