Bukit Aman CID director Abdul Jalil Hassan said the arrests were made last month and they are now being investigated under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (Atipsom).

“These companies have licences to bring in foreign workers to work in Malaysia as domestic workers, construction labourers and farm workers.

“However, they were found to have exploited their licences and sent Malaysians to work abroad, in countries like Thailand and Myanmar, where they were left stranded.”

Jalil spoke to reporters after the return of five Malaysians, who were victims of a job scam syndicate in Thailand, at KLIA here today.

“Police will work with the labour and immigration departments to find the masterminds of the syndicate.

“I believe these masterminds are in both countries (Malaysia and Thailand) and they are working together.”

Meanwhile, Jalil reminded NGOs and the next of kin of victims to channel information to the police or foreign affairs ministry so that the information from Malaysia to the Thai authorities is only through one official channel.

“The issue of overlapping information is the biggest obstacle facing the Thai authorities.

“When we channel information to them, they are unsure whether they want to receive information from NGOs or the police. The information received is not synchronised.

“So, we have decided that from now on, only information channelled by the embassy or police-to-police will be accepted.”

Jalil also reminded Malaysians to think hard before accepting any well-paying job offer abroad.

He said they should be asking questions if an outside company offers them up to US$2,000 (about RM8,800) in salary when they had no qualifications or work experience.

Jalil said with the return of the five victims today, Malaysian and Thai police had managed to rescue 12 victims. They are currently tracking the remaining 14 victims stranded in Thailand.