![New-Zealand-Malaysia-Passport](http://s3media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/New-Zealand-Malaysia-Passport.jpg)
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian passport is ranked as the fourth most powerful in the world by the Global Passport Power Rank 2017. But it loses some of its power when presented in New Zealand.
Malaysian nationals or those holding Malaysian passports top the list of those refused visitor visa waiver in New Zealand since 2011.
The reason: mainly because they were not considered genuine visitors, and that they were not there for the purpose stated in their documents.
Of the 4,877 foreign nationals unable to enter New Zealand under the visa waiver programme since 2011, 517 were Malaysian passport holders, according to a report in the portal stuff.co.nz.
More than a thousand people were refused visitor visas at the New Zealand border in the past year .
Malaysians, it reported, were at the top of that list after being refused more than any other nation in the 50-country visa waiver programme.
It said figures released under the Official Information Act by the ministry for business, innovation and employment showed the refusal numbers had almost doubled from 646 in 2012/2013 to 1,049 in 2016/2017.
“Malaysians were refused over 100 times more than any other nationality,” it reported.
Hong Kong was the second-highest with 412 refusals, followed by Australia (336), Great Britain (334) and Taiwan with 333.
In 2012, in reporting that Malaysia had the most number of travellers turned away, the New Zealand Herald said those rejected included some carrying false passports from people-smuggling syndicates.
“Malaysian Immigration says the country is being used as a transit point by syndicates which issue fake passports to help people to enter countries that have visa-free arrangements with Malaysia,” the report had said. However, the New Zealand Herald report did not identify the person in Malaysian Immigration who had said this.
Meanwhile, according to the stuff.co.nz. report, Wellington immigration lawyer John Petris said he suspected some might have been turned away because they didn’t educate themselves about the rules.
“There will also be genuine people who get caught up in this,” Petris said.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) assistant general manager Peter Devoy was quoted as saying the numbers needed to be viewed in a “broader context”.
“China is now the largest source of overseas visitors to New Zealand after Australia. Statistics New Zealand figures show Malaysia was the eighth-largest source of overseas visitors in the year to the end of June with more than 41,000 Malaysians coming here,” Devoy said.
According to the report in stuff.co.nz, most citizens of the 50 visa waiver countries did not have to apply for a visa before visiting for three months or less, or if they are British citizens, visiting for up to six months. -FMT
Try this - Feb 4 2016 - Disgraced diplomat Muhammad Rizalman gets 9 months' home detention for indecent assault - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11584420
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