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August 3, 2010 | Malaysia scraps visa on arrival facility for Indians, Chinese | Putrajaya: Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has said the visa-on-arrival (VOA) facility offered to visitors from eight countries, including India has been scrapped permanently because it was open to abuse. The facility was available to tourists from China, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Taiwan and Comoros. He said despite calls by several quarters for the facility to be
continued, the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants felt
that it needed to be revoked as it brought certain problems for the country. "In
the past, we gave flexibility to several nations. If their citizens came to this
country and they didn't have a visa, one could be issued at the entry point,"
The Star quoted Yassin, as saying. "We have noticed that this was being abused.
We (the Cabinet committee) agreed that the VOA facility be revoked or discontinued,"
he said after the committee meeting. It has been reported that thousands of tourists
have abused their VOA, which was introduced in 2006 in conjunction with Visit
Malaysia Year 2007, by overstaying. In February, the Government suspended the
facility for visitors from India following reports that the highest number of
VOA abuse involved citizens from that country. Last January, Prime Minsiter Najib
Tun Razak had expressed concern over the "disappearance" of almost 40,000 Indian
nationals who had entered the country through the VOA facility. |
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