Published on: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 |
Kota Kinabalu: The world's first on-line travel status checking service introduced by the Immigration Department last month has the names of about 500,000 people blacklisted from either leaving or entering the country.
Director-General Datuk Mahmood Adam said the "suspects list" has the names of about 300,000 Malaysians blacklisted by various departments and agencies.
The rest numbering some 200,000 comprise foreigners, including deported illegal immigrants prohibited from re-entering the country for various reasons including security, he told a Press conference after visiting the Sabah Immigration Department headquarters at the Federal Administrative Complex, Tuesday.
He said the security forces, Customs Department, National Registration Department, income tax, insolvency and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) were among the departments and agencies that use the Immigration Department's new service in its official website www.imi.gov.my.
About 78,000 PTPTN loan defaulters have been barred from leaving the country, he said, adding that people could go to the website and check their status by keying in their MyKad number.
He advised that it would be a good idea for people to check their travel status to avoid the embarrassment of finding out at the airport, when it is too late.
"If there is a prohibition (on your leaving the country), you will be advised to refer to the Security Division of the Immigration Department," he added. He said the on-line travel status check introduced on Feb. 5 has had 200,000 hits, so far.
About 1,000 people had already come forward to verify their status with the department, he said, adding that the result of the travel status check would not show the reasons for the travel ban but require them to go to the nearest Immigration Department office to get the explanation.
"If there is nothing wrong then the result of the travel status check will say "tiada halangan" (no objection)," he said.
According to him, as the first country in the world to introduce such a system, it clearly showed the transparency of the Government. Mahmood said the new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) offices in Semporna, Kudat, Lahad Datu and Menumbok would be opened this year while the Ranau Immigration Office was expected to start operations in July.
He also said people could now apply for and renew passports even on Saturday and Sunday at the immigration office here. At the moment, about 6.7 million Malaysians are holding passports.
Meanwhile, 197,000 temporary work visit passes issued to foreign workers in Sabah last year, compared to about 2.4 million for the whole country in the same period.
He said the nationwide figure was an increase from 2.2 million in 2007.
"The figure is not static because it depends on the employers whether they want to extend the work pass of the workers," he said. Also present was Sabah Immigration Director, Datuk Baharon Talib.
