This came to light following the arrest of a local couple, believed to be the masterminds of the syndicate, on April 11. The syndicate is believed to have charged between €30,000 (about RM146,000) and €50,000 to get a Malaysian passport for the children.
“Preliminary investigations showed that the syndicate’s clients chose to get Malaysian passports for the children as Malaysians do not require visas to visit European countries, unlike holders of Sri Lankan passports,” an immigration department spokesman told FMT.
Holders of Malaysian passports can enter 179 countries without a visa.
The immigration spokesman said the Sri Lankan children were not being smuggled into Europe to be sold.
“The children were being smuggled into Europe with the knowledge of their fathers who accompanied them to Malaysia.
“The parents were trying to smuggle their children into Europe so they could have a better life,” said the spokesman.
Sri Lanka’s political and economic woes have led to many leaving the country for greener pastures. According to a report on French-based News Decoder, over 300,000 Sri Lankans left the country in 2022 after securing jobs overseas.
The couple were arrested after the immigration officer processing the passport application for a child suspected something amiss when the guardians looked significantly different from the child, who could not speak Malay.
The spokesman said the syndicate boss’s wife would go to Sri Lanka to meet potential clients and the children.
The spokesman said the children and their fathers would enter Malaysia together as tourists and stay in the country for a few weeks before an application is made for the child’s passport.
It was reported that the syndicate would pay poor Malaysian parents with children under 12 around RM500 to use their children’s birth certificates to apply for passports for the Sri Lankan child.
During the application process at the immigration office, the Sri Lankan child would step in to be fingerprinted and have his photograph taken.
The couple was charged in the Kuala Lumpur sessions court on April 19.
The immigration department is currently tracking down the syndicate’s network and its past clients to determine whether they are from countries other than Sri Lanka.
According to the Henley Passport Index, the Malaysian passport is the 14th most powerful in the world.