M'sia Higher Education Ministry To Stop Issuing Visa, Social Visit Pass For Foreign Students

JOHOR BAHARU (Johore, Malaysia), Feb 20 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia Higher Education Ministry (HEM) will stop issuing visas on arrival and social visit passes to foreign students to check the abuse of passes. Its minister, Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the visas would only be issued to foreign students after they received an offer from public institutions of higher learning (IPT) or private IPT under the ministry's supervision. According to him, discussion with the Malaysian Immigration Department on the issue had been carried out two months ago. "Most of the foreign students that are involved in criminal activities and drug smuggling were pursuing temporary programmes and language classs in the IPT which are not under the ministry's supervision," he said. Khaled was commenting on a call by Criminology expert, Akhbar Satar to review the visa and student pass visit policy as an effort to prevent the country from becoming an international drug hub. He said, based on the police records, there were not many students under the ministry supervision who were involved in such activities. "Public Universities (IPTA) and Private Universities (IPTS) managements should inform the ministry if there are foreign students who neglect their lessons. The ministry will investigate whether they are involved in negative activities," he said. -- BERNAMA Malaysia