KUCHING: Before one goes abroad for work or travel, it is highly important to seek assistance from, or at least inform, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) first.
Why so? Not that the ministry wants to know your every movement or doings, but it is for your safety.
Take for instance, the 47 Malaysians who got duped in a job scam in Cambodia recently. The victims did not check with the MFA to get information about the recruitment agency before accepting the job offers.
The MFA has several important roles and functions, and one of them is assisting Malaysian citizens abroad in cases of emergencies.
“We provide information, advice and consular assistance to Malaysians before or after they leave the country,” MFA Sarawak director Deddy Faisal Ahmad Salleh told the New Sarawak Tribune.
Malaysians who want to work abroad are welcome to visit his office on the 14th floor of Bangunan Sultan Iskandar at Jalan Simpang Tiga or Wisma Putra in Putrajaya to find out if their prospective employers are legitimate.
“Please, also get the offer letters from the company, and email them to us hand-deliver them so that we can help to check if they are genuine or not,” he said.
Secondly, in case of an emergency, such as when a passport is lost abroad, the embassy can issue an emergency travel document.
“It is an emergency certificate for a one-way trip back to Malaysia,” he said.
However, before it can be issued, the passport holder must first report the loss of the document at the nearest police station and then bring a copy of the report to the embassy.
“In case a person goes missing, the person making the report must provide us the name, place of birth, details of Malaysian passport, identity card number, date of departure from Malaysia, date of arrival in the country where the person went missing, telephone number and photographs,” he said.
In case of natural disaster, civil disorder or terrorist attack, the embassy can only notify family members or spouses after the proper information has been collected.
“And if worse comes to the worst, we can help make arrangements to send the remains of a person home,” he said.
The following are what MFA cannot do.
It cannot pay for a person’s medical, legal, accommodation or travel expenses.
It cannot provide a person with a loan or cash.
It cannot intervene in any foreign judicial system.
It cannot intervene in any civil or commercial dispute.
It cannot provide any legal advice or initiate court proceeding for a person, but it can help the person get a lawyer.
Deddy also advised Malaysians who are going aboard to at least get a personal travel insurance coverage.
“Be sure of what the insurance covers. Ask if it covers extreme sports,” he said.
He said medical fees abroad can be expensive, so it is important to have an insurance cover.
On another matter, Deddy said many Malaysians who go to pluck seasonal fruits in countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) don’t know that they need work permits.
“We don’t want Malaysians to work illegally because it will tarnish our country’s name,” he said.
For further enquiries, the public can contact MFA’s office at +603-80008000 during office hours, or email them at pro.ukk@kln.gov.my.
They also have an emergency line at +60388874570 which can be contacted after office hours and an email at dutyoffice@kln.gov.my.
To date, Malaysia has 111 embassies/missions in 85 countries in North America, Latin America, Africa, Europe, Middle East, Oceania, and Asia.
