Sabah Immigration Dept debunks viral message, no special treatment given

Sabah's Immigration Department has refuted claims of special treatment received by an individual who left Sabah for Peninsular Malaysia.

In a statement today, the department's director Muhamad Sade Mohamad Amin said the individual has been contacted and the person has since apologised for making such claims online.

Muhamad Sade said the person's claim of receiving special treatment from people working within his department was false

This was because the movement control order (MCO) does not bar Malaysians from leaving Sabah nor require anyone to seek permission from the Immigration Department.

Since early this morning, images of a person's social media account depicting flight tickets from Tawau to Kuala Lumpur dated April 1.

The person who posted it claimed that they tried to leave Tawau on March 22 but were not allowed to by the immigration authorities.

"So this time, we sought help from people inside (the Immigration Department).

"The immigration boss is a friend of my dad. Praise be to God. I managed to get back to Kuala Lumpur," read the person's caption.

The person has since written an apology on the person's Facebook account this evening, stressing that there was no corruption involved and that the misunderstanding was caused by her poor choice of words. 

Muhamad Sade urged the public to be wary when posting content on social media to prevent the spread of fake news which can tarnish the image of the government who are busy providing services during the MCO period.

According to MCO rules, only people working in essential services, both private and civil service, are allowed to enter Sabah.

However, anyone entering the state during the MCO period are required to undergo quarantine for 14 days. - Mkini