MELAKA: The Immigration Department will hold discussions with the Syrian embassy over the case of a Syrian man who has been stranded at klia2 since March 7.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the department needed to go through a detailed vetting process before making any decision as to whether to issue a temporary pass to Hassan al Kontar, 36, as this involved national security.
“There is a certain process that needs to be followed... we cannot just issue a blanket approval,” he told reporters after launching the new Malaysian passport at state-level at the Urban Transformation Centre in Jalan Hang Tuah.
Mustafar said this in response to a statement by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed who said he was ready to consider issuing a temporary pass to al Kontar.
British newspaper The Guardian had reported that al Kontar, who is believed to be a former insurance salesman, had made the transit zone in klia2 his home since the beginning of March after being barred from leaving the country for Ecuador without a visa. He had also not been allowed to fly to Cambodia.
Meanwhile, Mustafar said the department had issued 542,000 new passports in the first three months of the year. These included 2,487 which had been applied for online.
“We began the online application facility in September 2016. That year, we issued 2,231 passports. Last year, we processed 5,123 online applications.”