Not a g’day mate!

IMAGINE planning for your dream vacation for months, only for your holiday plans to be dashed on the day of your departure.

My colleague Siti Hajar Abdul Rahman experienced just that when Australian authorities denied her a tourist visa. But ironically her four friends plus her husband and son were allowed to board the flight from KLIA on Oct 18.

Having applied for a visa a month prior to their travel date, Siti Hajar discovered that all six of her travel companions were granted permission to enter, but not her.

“An automated assessment has been made. Unfortunately your application is one of a small number of applications that cannot be approved over the Internet due to checks required by the Australian government.”

That was part of the email she received from the Electronic Travel Authority for Australia (ETA). She was then referred to another website to reapply for the visa.

“That was when my troubles started. It was a lengthy process but I attached all the necessary documents required. But there was no acknowledgement of my application.

“I tried again three days before my departure date, and once again received no indication from the Australian High Commission, ” she said, adding that the mission did not entertain queries.

Siti Hajar’s experience isn’t unique. There are an increasing number of Malaysians who have been denied entry into Australia in what can only be described as an arbitrary process.

A similar thing happened to another friend whose recent application was also rejected. The weird part was this friend is a regular traveller to the Land Down Under because he has property and his two children study there.

So, why is Australia making life difficult for Malaysian tourists? After all we are constantly being told (via advertising and social media) that Australia is one the best travel destinations with so much to offer.

Ironically, the rationale for this tightening of visa eligibility could be down to us, not the Aussies.

It was revealed in Parliament recently that about 33,000 Malaysians had overstayed their 90-day visa in Australia, with some claiming refugee status.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Marzuki Yahya, as a result of this, Australian authorities have now stationed immigration officers in Malaysia to check those going to the country.

“Their immigration officers are here to examine visa applications from Malaysians before they travel to Australia, ” he said.

“Greener pastures is why most overstayed and although Malaysians are not recognised as refugees by Australia, some still apply.

“Some do this (claiming refugee status) out of personal reasons in seeking better services or life in Australia or elsewhere, ” he said in Parliament.

These people who have abused their tourist visa privileges may have indirectly caused the likes of Siti Hajar to be denied entry into Australia.

A source in Wisma Putra told me that the Malaysian authorities acknowledge the problem and they have discussed the issue with their Australian counterparts.

“Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah is on a four-day working visit to Sydney and Melbourne starting tomorrow (today) and the visa issue is one of the items on his agenda that he will be discussing with his counterpart.

“The problem with Australia is that it does not practise deportation and the country’s privacy act prevents us from getting information on those Malaysians who have overstayed, ” the source said, adding that a large number are supposedly employed as fruit pickers in the agricultural sector.

Australia’s tightening of tourist visa approvals could be the tip of the iceberg.

Malaysians overstaying and abusing their visas is nothing new after all. There are also issues with human trafficking (we were downgraded to the Tier 2-Watch List by the US State Department last year) and being a transit point for terrorists.

This last point is acknowledged by Bukit Aman because we offer visa-free entry to most Middle-Eastern countries and some African nations, which are known to harbour foreign militants.

The combination of the above as well as other issues could be the reason Malaysia fell to number 38 in the the Global Passport Power Rank score. Just two years ago, we were ranked as the 13th most powerful passport.

Malaysia is given a visa-free score (VFS) of 164 in the latest rankings published by Arton Capital’s Passport Index. A VFS represents the number of countries a passport holder can visit visa-free or with a visa-on-arrival.

The index is the only real time global ranking of the world’s passports, which is updated as frequently as new visa waivers and changes are announced.

The No. 1 spot for the most powerful passport in the world was the United Arab Emirates with a VFS of 178, followed by Germany, Finland, Luxembourg and Spain.

The highest ranked Asian countries are Japan and South Korea on 170.

After her painful experience, Siti Hajar has now decided that there will be no more family holidays in Australia.

“I don’t want to go through the visa application process again. I would rather holiday in a country that allows us visa-free entry, ” she said.