AUSTRALIA TOASTS MALAYSIAN POLICE PROFESSIONALISM

MELBOURNE, Oct 23 (Bernama) –- Australia is singing the praises of the
Malaysian police.

The professionalism of the force is now the toast of the Australian
authorities
after it routed a major people-smuggling ring which targeted Australia-bound
Afghan asylum seekers.

The Perth-based West Australian newspaper said seven immigration officials
working at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport were arrested last week as
part of a sting which followed a joint Australian-Malaysian investigation of the
people-smuggling syndicate.

Following a tip-off from the Australian authorities, the Malaysian police
uncovered a sophisticated operation involving an international network of
corrupt officials in three countries.

The police also unearthed a 'recycling' of fake Pakistani passports.

The newspaper said asylum-seekers from Afghanistan would pay up to A$10,000
to people smugglers based in Karachi, Pakistan and were given false passports
for their flight to Kuala Lumpur, where they would be instructed to go to a
particular line in the immigration queue.

Once their passports were stamped by an official, they would be met by a
member of the crime syndicate who would then confiscate their passports, take
them to a safe house where they would pay about A$3,000 for passage to Australia
on a boat through the Malacca Straits.

The report said some Afghans were flown from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta where
corrupt officials helped them clear immigration and customs. They were also
taken to safe houses to wait for their boat to Christmas Island.

Passports used by the asylum seekers were returned to Karachi for the next
paying customers.

The syndicate's methods were pieced together by Australian analysts who
found similarities in the stories of hundreds of asylum seekers during
interviews with immigration officials on Christmas Island.

Of those arrested by Malaysian police last week, one was a deputy assistant
director of the country's immigration department. Two others were a Pakistani
and Indonesian.

A senior official in Canberra said Australian authorities were impressed by
the Malaysian police professionalism and effectiveness.

The West Australian newspaper was told a "significant number" of the
thousands of Afghan asylum seekers to have arrived on boats this year, used the
crime syndicate.

Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the syndicate
was also linked to terrorist activities, drug and firearm smuggling and
espionage.

A record 107 boats have arrived this year, carrying 5,088 asylum seekers,
2,557 of whom are from Afghanistan.

The next biggest country of origin is Iran (753), followed by Iraq (571) and
Sri Lanka (393).

-- BERNAMA