Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said a committee will be set up by the home ministry to look into the matter and propose further action.

“I had the chance to speak to some Rohingya UNHCR cardholders (in an operation) yesterday. They admitted to entering Malaysia through the Thai border with Kedah and Kelantan, and that their passage through was managed by agents.

“They also said the agents arranged their trip to the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur for the process of obtaining the refugee card.

“However, they denied buying the UNHCR refugee cards. They said they paid the agent between RM5,000 and RM7,000 per person to bring them into the country and to take them to the UNHCR office,” he told reporters after the operation at a housing project site in Kubang Menerong, here early this morning.

During the raid, the department inspected 36 foreign nationals working at the site and detained 25 of them, including a woman, for not having travel documents and for overstaying.

Khairul said those arrested in the operation that started at 11.15pm last night consisted of 10 Bangladeshi men, eight Indonesian men, five Myanmar men, one Nepalese man, and one Nepalese woman.

“All the foreigners were taken to the detention depot for further investigation because some of them were suspected of using fake UNHCR cards,” he said.

According to Khairul, it was the 261st successful operation carried out by the Penang immigration department so far this year.

He said a total of 193 foreigners and 32 employers were detained for various immigration offences during the period, involving a compound amount of over RM2.5 million.