KUALA LUMPUR: The Immigration Department and police have been instructed to assist 34 students detained for crossing the Malaysia-Thailand border via illegal routes to obtain valid travel documents.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the move seeks to balance enforcement and the educational needs of border communities.
“We aim to ease the students’ situation, noting that they were residing in Thailand but attending school in Rantau Panjang and Pasir Mas, Kelantan.
“I have instructed Immigration director-general (Datuk Zakaria Shaaban) and the Kelantan police chief (Comm Datuk Mohd Yusoff Mamat) to assist these children in facilitating their travel documents,” he told a press conference after the Mekar Didik Initiative documentation handover ceremony and Kaunter Lorong Programme at Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih yesterday.
Saifuddin Nasution stressed that while communities in border areas such as Rantau Panjang and Golok share close family and social ties, all cross-border movement must still comply with the law and be supported by valid travel documents such as passports or border passes.
“Any movement across the border must have valid travel documents. This is important because border areas are exposed to various cross-border crimes, including drug smuggling, firearms, human trafficking and other contraband,” he said.
However, Saifuddin Nasution said police would continue investigations into why the students resorted to using illegal crossing points, including whether documentation issues or other factors were involved.
He warned that smuggling syndicates remained the main threat along the national border, with criminal networks also believed to have exploited vulnerable groups, including students and animals, in their operations.
It was previously reported that 34 students, aged between seven and 16, from two primary schools and one secondary school, were detained on April 12 after being found crossing Sungai Golok illegally from Thailand into Malaysia.
They were later released on police bail late on April 13.
In a separate development, Saifuddin Nasution said the National Registration Department (NRD) has resolved all 12,101 cases of missing identity documents involving students nationwide identified since June last year, as part of the government’s ongoing efforts to address documentation gaps.
“All cases had been fully processed under the integrated Mekar Didik initiative, a joint programme between the Home Ministry and the Education Ministry aimed at ensuring no student is left without essential identity documents such as birth certificates, MyKid or MyKad,” he said.
