Immigration Dept: 29 foreigners deported last year for abusing student visas

CYBERJAYA: The Immigration Department deported 29 foreigners from the country last year for abusing their student visas.

Its deputy director-general Datuk Ibrahim Abdullah said in total, 674 foreign students, predominantly from Bangladesh, China and Nigeria, had been arrested for various offences.

He added that 321 of them were fined while the rest were freed after investigations.

Ibrahim was speaking at the Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) office during a visit by Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap on Wednesday.

EMGS was set up by the Higher Education Ministry as a one-stop centre to process international student applications for public and private higher education institutions, including language schools and skills training centres.

Its CEO Mohd Yazid Abd Hamid said: "We make sure that the applicant has met all the requirements on the academic side before we submit the application to the Immigration Department, which handles the security screening aspects."

Mohd Yazid said that the entire process at EMGS' end was electronic to reduce the risk of human error or interference.

Meanwhile, Yap praised EMGS and the Immigration Department for creating a taskforce that rapidly processed a backlog of student visa applications caused by a system glitch.

The taskforce cleared over 3,800 student visa applications in seven days instead of the targeted 14 days.

A total of 91,686 foreign students came to Malaysia in 2016.