57 years' jail for trafficking in 86 illegal immigrants???

Just recently they said about 500 companies found to have committed offences with regard to migrants, and many were let of with reprimands. Now, here a poor driver, is sentenced 86 years - what about the owner of the bus? what about the agents who arranged for the transportation to Malaysia, what about the people who received delivery... TRAFFICKING - was it really? It is very different from the word SMUGGLING. More often than not, people are smuggled over the borders. Trafficking implies that it was done without the consent of the person being brought in. Trafficking implies these persons were akin to slaves. The word "trafficking" have been promoted by the US and we, too sometimes use the wrong words. From the report, it seems that it was one trip -he picked them up at the Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration Complex exit >>> therefore the question is where is the "trafficking" or even "smuggling" - all he could have been charged for was possibly harbouring undocumented migrants - but then this was a bus driver (Are we saying that all bus drivers, taxi drivers and train operators have now been placed with the burden of determining the legal status of all their passengers.... let us be reasonable...) Was it only the DRIVER that they caught? What happened to the REST - noting that they were taken from Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration Complex. Driver jailed 57 years for transporting illegals

Monday, 17 December 2007, 08:55am

©The Star (Used by permission) JITRA: A bus driver from Ipoh was sentenced to more than 57 years' jail for trafficking in 86 illegal immigrants into the country last year. A magistrate's court here found M. Elangoran, 36, guilty yesterday of transporting the Myanmars on the bus he was driving early this year. He was sentenced to eight months’ jail for every illegal immigrant he allowed on the bus at the Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration Complex exit route at 7.30am on Feb 3. Magistrate Nabisha Ibrahim ordered the 688 months' sentence to be carried out concurrently. Elangoran’s counsel, S. Kuppusamy told the court he would appeal the decision and asked that the sentence be postponed. Nabisha allowed the postponement and set bail at RM15,000 in one surety for Elangoran. She also ordered the bus to be forfeited. The case was prosecuted by Nar Azaman Ibrahim.