In the early hours of last Thursday, immigration officers and local police raided a night club at Wisma Central on Jalan Ampang Street following “tip-offs” that many foreigners were working there illegally. A total of 37 foreign women, 33 Thais and four Vietnamese, were caught trying to escape from the police through a secret passage on the second floor leading to the ninth-floor rooftop, the Asia Times reported. The foreign women were designated as “public relation officers,” police said. The raid also netted nine Bangladeshi men working as guards. All the detainees, aged between 20 and 35, will face charges of violating Malaysia’s immigration laws. Last month, immigration authorities in Malaysia captured 31 Vietnamese women for working illegally as guest relations officers at a high-end entertainment facility in Cheras, a district southeast of the capital city. People in Southeast Asia can travel across the region without having to apply for a visa, but they are only allowed to stay for 30 days as tourists. In recent years, Vietnamese workers, mainly women, have visited neighboring countries like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia and stayed on to work illegally. Many have been caught, detained and deported.
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