KUCHING, July 29 -- A total of 15 Bangladeshi men were detained straight after they arrived at Kuching International Airport (KIA) yesterday afternoon.

The Sarawak Immigration Department said in a Facebook post that the men were detained at around 12.50pm upon their arrival on a flight from Kuala Lumpur.

"Initial checks revealed that none of them had valid entry records in the Immigration Department's system.

"Further inspection uncovered immigration stamps suspected to be counterfeit in their passports, believed to have been used to deceive authorities into thinking they had entered the country legally," the department said.

Preliminary investigations found that each man is believed to have paid between RM18,000 and RM20,000 to syndi...