Students Special Sub Unit Creates Working Group To Monitor Foreign Students

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- The Student Pass Special Unit established by the Home Ministry has created a working group to monitor international students to address the issue of foreign students in the country. The ministry's secretary-general Mahmood Adam said the group would meet every month to discuss the status and issues on international students. "The group will also identify measures to improve and resolve issues as well as outline the steps to be taken to control and curb the abuse of passes by the international students," he said in a statement here on Friday. The sub-unit was among the four special sub-units created to address the issue on foreigners in the country, as announced by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Oct 31. The other three sub-units will address issues on foreign workers and citizens in East Malaysia states of Sabah and Sarawak, refugees and unfounded political accusations. Mahmood said the students special sub-unit, which had met twice on Nov 3 and 9, would also gather statistics and reports on the number of approved international students, the number of institutions involved, type of courses and the durations, the number of students involved in negative activities and those who were blacklisted. It would also conduct an integrated and periodic inspection visits which involved the police, Immigration Department, Higher Education Ministry, Education Ministry, Home Ministry and Skills Development Department to ensure that every institutions complied with all relevant acts and regulations and did not abuse the approval of international students intakes. He said the Standard Operating Procedure between all agencies involved would be adjusted to ensure that there was no overlapping of tasks and cooperation between agencies could be implemented effectively. Other agencies involved in the sub-unit are the National Anti-Drugs Agency and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. -- BERNAMA Malaysia