No entry for 73,000 this year
Individuals served NTL notices at 146 points by Immigration
SEPANG: Nearly 73,000 individuals were served with the “Not-To-Land” (NTL) notice and denied entry by the Immigration Department at the country’s 146 entry points this year.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the bulk of the notices was issued at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
The NTL was for various reasons. “We caught those who claimed they came to study. However, some gave admission letters for higher learning institutions that either did not exist or had ceased operations.
“Some even produced fake admission letters, while others had damaged passports,” Mustafar said during the Immigration Day celebration at KLIA here.
Mustafar said Malaysia welcomed genuine visitors but not those attempting to enter the country illegally.
He said KLIA handled about eight million passengers this year.
“So you can see the number of individuals we have to handle at KLIA. The department is constantly upgrading its capacity to deal with the growing number of passengers.
“Our commitment is to ensure those coming into the country legally will go through a smooth process. At the same time, security must always be high so we can prevent those coming in illegally,” he said. From Jan 1 to Dec 17, Mustafar said the department conducted 14,250 operations all over the country to catch illegal immigrants.
A total of 185,065 individuals were checked while 46,630 illegal immigrants were deported.
“We have also found nearly 1,400 employers who had illegal foreign workers and most of them have already been charged and sentenced in court,” he said.
He added that there were close to 9,000 illegal immigrants currently in detention centres.
“We are working hard to ensure they get deported quickly because the longer they stay, the more we have to spend on food and others. Our detention centres are also getting congested,” said Mustafar.