The suspects, including an Indian and a Pakistani, were arrested over the past three days for alleged involvement in human trafficking networks that help foreigners enter Malaysia illegally, said national police chief Ismail Omar.
“Through their corrupt act, they exposed the country ... to danger,” Ismail said, without elaborating.
They were detained under the Internal Security Act, which allows authorities to indefinitely hold people regarded as threats to national security, said federal police spokesman Zaiham Mohamad Kahar.
It is rare for people-smuggling suspects to be held under the security act, which has mainly been used in recent years against alleged members of militant groups.
Malaysia has become a magnet for people from impoverished or war-torn places looking for work illegally or seeking a transit point to enter other nations, such as Australia.
Some estimate that at least 2 million foreigners, many from neighboring Indonesia, work in Malaysia illegally.
Malaysian media reports last month said authorities were investigating several immigration officials for helping foreigners without valid travel documents enter Malaysia by sea on the country’s west coast, which is separated from Indonesia’s Sumatra island by a busy waterway.
Human rights groups have repeatedly urged the government to take tougher action against officials involved in people smuggling. A senior immigration official was charged last year with selling an illegal immigrant from Myanmar to human traffickers on the border with Thailand. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
