Vietnam looks into Malaysia's detention of 41 citizens for illegal immigration

Vietnam's foreign ministry on Thursday said it is seeking clarification regarding reports that Malaysia had detained 41 Vietnamese nationals for illegal immigration.

"The foreign ministry will be communicating closely with functional agencies to protect and guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese citizens," the ministry's deputy spokesperson Ngo Toan Thang said in a statement.

Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times on Tuesday reported that Malaysian Immigration Department had detained 1,224 illegal immigrants, including 41 Vietnamese nationals, in operations across the country since Monday.

The operations were conducted after Malaysia's illegal immigrants' rehiring program reached its deadline on June 30.

The detainees were 399 Bangladeshi nationals, 164 from Indonesia, 157 from the Philippines, 109 from Myanmar, 43 from Thailand and 41 from Vietnam.

The illegal immigrants were held for various offences including forgery of travel documents, the department's director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali was quoted as saying.