This followed a raid conducted at an apartment housing area along Jalan Imbi here last night.

Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said the activity was believed to have been orchestrated by an unregistered organisation that had been operating in one of the apartment units in the area since 2009.

He said applicants were charged RM500 each in membership fees as well as other payments.

“Based on the seized payment receipts, an estimated 1,000 people of the Chin ethnicity had become members of this organisation,” he told a press conference after the raid which ended at 2.30am today.

According to Khairul, the membership card indicated the holder was a Chin ethnic refugee waiting for permission to go to a third country.

Khairul said the department believed this activity was masterminded by those from the Chin ethnic group itself and efforts would be made to track them down.

In the operation last night, 1,051 foreigners were rounded up and 544 of them, aged between one and 68, were detained for various immigration offences and sent to the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot.

Those detained included 30 children, aged between one and 10, from the Chin ethnic group, he added.

He said the operation was conducted by 115 immigration personnel, assisted by 43 men from other departments, including the national registration department and the civil defence department.