Malaysia will deal with applications for visitor visas for Bangladeshis through a one-stop centre in Dhaka from October 1. The country’s Immigration director general Alias Ahmad said the move aimed to curb rampant cases of fake visas involving Bangladeshis seeking employment in that country, according to the Star, a Malaysian newspaper.Currently, Alias said, the applications were handled by several agencies in Bangladesh, which the Malaysian authorities found hard to monitor.
However, the DG said applications for employment visas for Bangladeshis remained unchanged.
The paper quoted him as saying the government-appointed one-stop centre (OSC) would be linked directly with all immigration entry points in Malaysia.
He said this would enable them to verify whether the visas issued to the visitors in Bangladesh were genuine or not.
‘The OSC will be responsible for ensuring that the applicants fulfil all the requirements, including having return air tickets, confirmed hotel reservations and RM2,000,’ he told reporters in Putrajaya City, south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The Star quoted the immigration chief as saying that between January and July, 6,136 visitors from Bangladesh were denied entry after they were found to have used fake visas and passports.
‘That is an average of 876 persons per month, and our investigations showed that most of them wanted to stay longer, probably to seek employment.
‘Some of them could also be genuine visitors, but became victims of visa forgery syndicates,’ he was further quoted as saying.
-With New Age input
