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Kuala Lumpur (ANTARA News) - Malaysian immigration officers have detained 42 Indonesians in an operation in Taman Muda market, Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, for not having legal documents and violating their permits.

"We detained 89 foreigners for not having legal documents and violating their permits, 42 of them are Indonesians," the Director of Law Enforcement of the Malaysian Immigration Office, Ishak Mohamed, said in Putrajaya, Thursday.

In addition to the Indonesians, the authority has also detained 29 Myanmarese, nine Bangladesh nationals, three Nepalese, five Indians, and one Vietnamese in the operation held on Wednesday.

The operation was aimed at foreigners who run their business in the market without legal permits.

"The operation was conducted following reports that many foreigners worked as traders in Taman Muda market in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur," Ishak Mohamed, popularly known as Dato Sako, said.

Among the Indonesians who were detained are Muniati with her 13 months old baby Triwulansari from East Java, who claimed that she did not brought her passport.

Other Indonesians are Wiwi (39) from Karawang of West Java, Masriwati from West Nusa Tenggara. Both are domestic workers.

Dato Sako said, he would summon the Malaysian employers for clarification.

According to Sako, the immigration office has recently imposed a fine of 600,000 ringgit (some Rp1.8 billion) to a local food producer Secret Recipe for violating working permits for their employees.

A gloves producer had to pay 1.6 million ringgit of fine (some Rp4.5 billion) as they employed workers whose permits had already expired.

"So, we also impose sanctions to the employers. It's not true that we only take action against the workers. They were just victims," he added.

Previously on Monday, the immigration office detained nine Indonesians, five Bangladesh nationals and a Malaysian employer, in an operation held in Suruhanjaya Tenaga Presint 2, located right in front of the immigration office.

In a similar operation in Klang, Selangor, last Monday (April 28), 77 people including two Malaysian employers, 54 Indonesian workers, 13 Indians, and eight Bangladesh nationals were detained.

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