Indian group in klia2 incident were ‘job-seekers on tourist passes’

 

A TikTok video had alleged that Indian visitors were badly treated at klia2.

SEPANG: Allegations of discrimination by the immigration department towards Indian nationals arriving at klia2 have been shown to be incorrect, says immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud.

Khairul said investigations had shown that a group from India allegedly treated poorly at the terminal had not gone to the immigration counter directly and had been loitering in the arrival area for almost three hours.

After being questioned, it was found that the Indian nationals had come to Malaysia not as tourists but were looking for employment illegally as they had no place of accommodation and did not have sufficient pocket money.

These were clearly in violation of their social visit pass, he said.

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Khairul Dzaimee Daud.

A one-minute video clip on TikTok had claimed that the Indian citizens were forced to sit on the floor and had to undergo a long entry process despite having complete documents.

Khairul said some members of the group had been found to be hiding in the toilets, which raised the suspicions of the enforcement officers, he said.

He said the immigration officers went looking for them after officers noted that some passengers listed on the airline manifest had not turned up at the immigration counter even after two to three hours.

“They were taken to the operation room for investigation,” he told reporters after an engagement session between the department and tourism agencies at KLIA here today.

Khairul said all the travellers had returned to India and they were given Not-To-Land (NTL) notices and were blacklisted from entering Malaysia after this.

He said a total of 34,786 people had been issued NTL notices; most were from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Vietnam.

In another development, Khairul said the National Integrated Immigration System was expected to be operational in early 2024, to replace the Malaysian Immigration System which had been in operation for more than 20 years.

The new system, incorporating fingerprint and facial biometric recognition, would contribute to effective enforcement.

On another matter, Khairul said his department will give its full cooperation to the investigation committee probing the incident involving a senior government official and an immigration officer at KLIA on Aug 3. He declined to comment further as the team had already been set up.

Chief Secretary Zuki Ali yesterday announced the establishment of the committee of inquiry to investigate the alleged incident. - FMT