Malaysian over stayers ongoing concern for UK government

The UK government remains unimpressed with measures enacted by their Malaysian counterparts to stem the issue of over-stayers.

In 2008, Malaysia was one of ten countries included on a risk list which were warned that visa requirements may be imposed if they failed to take appropriate steps to curb the problem which also extended to illegal workers.

Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim, theb then Foreign Minister, won Malaysia a reprieve following a visit to the UK to meet with authorities. However, the status of the reprieve is probationary until 2011 pending the Malaysian government’s actions and recent events have suggested the prognosis is not good.

According to Datuk Rustam Yahaya, the Deputy High Commissioner to the UK, British officials have not been convinced that the course of action has been working. This means the six month visa-free arrangement could be lost, primarily due to some 20,000 over-stayers currently estimated to be in the UK.

UK views the lack of sufficient law enforcement in Kuala Lumpur as the main reason and has stated that Malaysia needs to impose stricter controls to ensure that only bona fide travellers are allowed to use the KL-London route.

According to Datuk Rustam Yahaya 98% of the reported over-stayers or illegal workers were of the Chinese community, with a minute number of ethnic Malays making up the total. Overall, there are around 50,000 Malaysian citizens in the UK

The other nations included on the black list were Mauritius, Namibia, Bolivia, Botswana, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Lesotho and Swaziland.