Two of the biggest airports in the country are being used as transit points for illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka to move into a third country, Malaysia's The Star reported citing Utusan Malaysia.

The local daily reported about how 10 human trafficking and passport falsifying syndicates were operating in KLIA and KLIA2, The Star said.

However, investigations conducted by Malaysian police on the operation, said to be masterminded by a Sri Lankan, failed to uncover anything as some of the officials in both airports were in cahoots with the syndicates.

The syndicates bring in the Sri Lankans, get them passports which are altered and falsified, then stamped to enable them to be here.

One of the reasons for this movement was the worsening economic situation in Sri Lanka, the report said.

On Tuesday, 19 people, two of them Immigration officers, were detained for human trafficking and passport falsification.

(The Star Online)