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Friday October 28, 2005

Immigration Department needs people who speak Mandarin

PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department wants to appoint people who speak Mandarin as contract officers to be stationed at all major airports in view of the increasing number of Chinese tourists to the country.

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the contract officers would supplement the number of Mandarin-speaking Immigration officials at the KL International Airport.

“Their number is too small compared to the demand. Under the open sky concept, more tourists are arriving through airports in Penang, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and even Langkawi.

“The Immigration Department needs to take in Mandarin-speaking contract officers so that we can have at least one Mandarin-speaking officer on every shift at these airports,” he said on Tuesday.

He said a similar arrangement had been made to deal with tourists from the Middle East, to minimise confusion and misunderstanding.

On the MyKad, Azmi said the National Registration Department was looking into the possibility of printing the photograph on the card to ensure that it was tamper-proof instead of pasting the picture on it before lamination.

“The security chip in MyKad however remains tamper-proof as even if the photograph were to be changed, the original details remain,” he added.

To date, 117 cases of MyKad tampering had been brought to the courts, most of which involved lost or stolen cards, said Azmi.

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