13 Chinese nationals arrested for violations of CMCO SOP; 58 PATI nabbed under Ops Jala

Deputy Chief Minister and SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas

By Karen Bong

KUCHING, Jan 26: Police have arrested 13 Chinese nationals who were employees of a reflexology outlet here for violating the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) standard operating procedures (SOP) in the past 24 hours.

State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas revealed that the 13 Chinese women were arrested for violations on activities prohibited during CMCO.

“Apart from that, a total of 10 compounds have been issued with four in Samarahan, Sibu (3), Kuching (2) and Padawan (1),” he told a press conference on Covid-19 update today.

As for Ops Jala, Uggah reported that 58 illegal immigrants (PATI) have been arrested from inspections carried out on 22 construction sites and 14 coffeeshops in Kuching.

“This brings the total number of areas inspected to 36 as of today (Jan 26) with 601 locals and 589 foreigners from countries like Indonesia, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, China and Myanmar have been inspected,” he said.

Ops Jala was launched on Jan 20 to weed out illegal immigrants who could create increased risk of spreading Covid-19 in Sarawak.

Uggah, who is also Deputy Chief Minister added that meanwhile the Sarawak Immigration Department arrested 72 individuals for visa and permit violations following an operation launched in Sibu today.

“A total of 161 individuals were inspected from the operation and 72 were caught to have overstayed their visa and permit and without valid documents in Sarawak,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Local Government and Housing also issued 126 oral and written notices under Padawan Municipal Council (44), Kuching North City Commission (32), Sibu Municipal Council (26), MD Serian (8), MD Marudi (8), Kuching South City Council (4) and Bintulu Development Authority (4). ā€” DayakDaily