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Immigration DG: Foreign missions have no right to issue documents allowing their citizens to stay here

KUALA LUMPUR: "Outsiders" do not have any right to interfere in the sovereignty and legal affairs of the country, especially in matters pertaining to migrants' stay in Malaysia.

Immigration Department director-general Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud said foreign embassies do not have the authority to issue any form of document or permit allowing its citizens to reside in Malaysia.

"Nothing other than the department's legal documents will be recognised. Temporary passes issued by the migrants' embassies (will not be recognised)," he said

He said as the country's designated authority on the matter, the Immigration Department was in charge of the issuance of visas to foreign nationals to live and work in the country.

"No one, other than the Immigration Department has the right to issue any permission to stay in the country.

"It's the same for Malaysians who are caught in other countries. They are also subject to punishment by foreign authorities when they violate those countries' immigration laws," he said in a post on the department's official Facebook page, responding to an article published by an online news portal yesterday.

Khairul Dzaimee said foreigners with such "permits" caught in operations would still be considered illegal immigrations.

"No one can question the authority of the Immigration Department in this matter. We are just carrying out our duty which is to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country," he said.

He said therefore, all parties must respect the rule of law of a country.

In the article, a migrant rights group was quoted as saying that the settlement raided by the authorities in Nilai Spring, Negri Sembilan, last week, was not an illegal one.

The Jakarta-based Migrant Care had claimed that an initial group of Indonesian workers were first hired by an employer to work at a nearby sand mine nine years ago.

It had claimed the group then grew with the addition of the elderly, women, and children, making up the 67 individuals who had been detained.

All of them were nabbed on Feb 1 and are now being detained at the Lenggeng Immigration depot.

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