Sleeping immigration officer at KLIA found with 12 foreign passports tucked into waistband

An immigration officer working at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) has been accused of keeping 12 foreign passports tucked into his waistband.

This was spotted by a woman immigration officer who had noticed her colleague literally sleeping on the job.

Malaysiakini reported that the woman officer had approached her sleeping colleague after noticing that his uniform appeared unkempt.

That was when she noticed the foreign passports tucked into her colleague's waistband.

The woman officer took the passports and reported the matter to the Head of Immigration at Terminal 2, according to a police report dated Jan 7.

KLIA District Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Azman Shari'at, confirmed the report and shared that the case has been referred to the Immigration Department.

Singapore's Berita Harian reported that an internal source at the Malaysian Immigration Department revealed that the officer involved had been transferred to KLIA Depot immediately after the incident.

The source also claimed that the officer was still actively involved in passport "fly" activities, a syndicate manipulating immigration records.

"Fly" refers to a syndicate that "sorts out" immigration violations such as overstaying or blacklisting by using fake stamps to allow entry and exit.

"He took around 30 passports each day from Pakistani agents and was paid RM 1,400 ($315) for each passport fly," claimed an immigration source from Putrajaya.

Immigration officers were in the past accused of secretly stamping foreign passports at a specific location before receiving payment.

The allegation now involves officers taking the passports to the immigration counter to have them officially stamped before returning them to the agents.