KUCHING: The Immigration Department must take stern action including charging those tourists found overstaying in the country, said Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
Abdul Karim said he fully supported such action be taken against tourists or visitors who overstayed in the country as their numbers are in the thousands.
According to the 2018 Auditor-General’s Report Series 2, there was no record of exit dates for more than 95 percent of Chinese and Indian tourists who visited the country between 2016 and last year.
The report mentioned that out of 79,799 Chinese tourist arrivals, it was found that 76,258 have no record of exit dates from the country.
The Home Ministry is also concerned over the high number of tourists from China and India who have overstayed in the country as stated in the report.
Abdul Karim said stern action was necessary to avoid the situation becoming more serious and out of control.
“Luckily Sarawak has its own immigration law and I don’t think the situation is that bad here” he told reporters after meeting with representatives of sport associations involved with 20th Malaysia Games yesterday.
Abdul Karim, however said he did not have the details of those tourists overstaying in Sarawak, but added the situation wasn’t serious.
“Unlike in Sabah there is a high number of illegal immigrants which means our immigration control has been successful.”
Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had referred the matter to the Immigration Department to be scrutinised.
He said some things can be explained, adding what was important is when tourists do not go back and overstay, the Immigration will want to know where they are.
“Immigration enforcement action will be taken against them, we want to make sure that when a person is in the country, it must be within the period approved by the Immigration Department,” he told reporters at the Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security Complex on Monday.
However, Immigration director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud was reported as saying that the figures were inaccurate as the actual number of Chinese tourists who have not left was 18,341.
He said the difference may be due to the fact that they are using the Electronic Travel Registration & Information (eNTRI) system, a visa-free facility for visitors from China and India. “Then when they leave the country using the normal system, using a regular social visit pass, there are drawbacks in the technical system, because of that there is a difference,” he said.
