No room for discretion in immigration control

AT a dinner party recently, a friend introduced a new acquaintance to our group. As is the norm in social engagements, a handful of topics soon began to be discussed in between the courses. One topic that really caught everyone’s attention was border control.

Our new English acquaintance revealed that in his two years of living in Kuala Lumpur, he has not once bothered to apply for a work permit. Apparently, all one needs to do is to simply take a quarterly trip outside KL for a few days (or in his case a fix on his tan on the beach of Koh Samui) and get one’s passport stamped with a renewed 90-day social visit pass upon one’s return.

We have on several occasions heard of this visa run being practised by several other new acquaintances who are happily based in KL, living their tax-free lives in their posh apartments.

In fact, a simple Google search on the subject would reveal all kinds of tips and tricks that date back as far as 10 years ago for anyone who chooses to avoid the hassle of getting a work permit.

But the audacity to brag about his blatant abuse of the immigration officer’s oversight in letting him through was just a little too much for some of us locals. It was embarrassing as well.

On a separate occasion, I was in line at a petrol station waiting for my turn at the cash counter. It was a Friday afternoon and the crowd was mostly from the nearby mosque seeking refreshments to counter the heat. Ahead of me, two foreign workers were about to pay for some cold drinks when someone who looked and sounded like an immigration officer suddenly approached them and dove straight into a full-on public interrogation on the existence and legality of their work permits.

What baffles me most when comparing the two situations is how Immigration Department officials are so actively and forcefully taking action on foreign workers who are simply attending to menial jobs for an honest living here but are turning a blind eye to other nationalities just because they arrived on a commercial flight with a better passport. Why the double standard?

CONCERNED CITIZEN

Petaling Jaya