5 December 2017
The year end school holiday season is here and imagine after having paid and packed in readiness for your vacation only to be denied from boarding your flight by immigration officers at passport control counters.
Worried you might become another statistic in the long list of Malaysians who were prevented from going overseas due to defaulting payments to the National Higher Education Fund or other outstanding loans?
The Immigration Department of Malaysia recently has installed a set of blacklist status kiosks in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) that allow you to check your travel status as a Malaysian citizen.
KLIA is the first airport to have three new pre-read kiosks to quickly check your status before you go through the trouble of checking into your flight only to get to the immigration counter and be asked to turned back.
Although Malaysians planning to go abroad can already check their travel status via the Immigration Department website, many travellers still end up getting stopped at the airport.
According to the Immigration Department, there are currently 800,000 Malaysians on the blacklist, preventing them from leaving the country. due to blacklisting mainly by the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) and the Insolvency Department, NST reports.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali told reporters the kiosks are a form of public service to reduce the hassles of delaying flights to unload checked in baggage and other travel arrangements.
"Before check-in, they need to ascertain if they are blacklisted by any agencies to avoid any travel hassles later.
"Some flight have to be postponed because the airline staff have to unload the baggage of passengers who have been barred from boarding as they are in the blacklist," he told reporters after launching the kiosks last week.
Currently the three kiosks are located at Level 5 of KLIA next to the Gate 1 and Gate 2.
Upon checking, a traveller can quickly find out if they are ineligible to travel and the kiosk will also provide the reason behind the restriction so that the individual can contact the relevant agencies.
Furthermore, travelers holding cancelled or expired passports will be alerted, likewise for those using passports that expire in less than 6 months or has been reported stolen.
The department is planning to rollout more kiosks for airports around the country including at klia2 in the near future.
Original Source: malaysiandigest
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