MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2002
Malaysia to tighten foreign student visas: Report
AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will tighten student visa restrictions and has warned that foreigners masquerading as students to find jobs would be deported, a report said on Sunday.
Deputy Home (Interior) Minister Chor Chee Heung said many foreign students, particularly female Chinese nationals, were prone to secure "profitable employment" at local discotheques and massage parlours after entering the country on their study visas.
"We have to be strict on this matter and be very careful when issuing visas to foreign students, especially the female Chinese, whose main intention is to find jobs and not to study," he was quoted by the Sunday Star newspaper as saying.
"We will have to deport them," he said, adding that no foreign student had yet been sent back.
Chor said Malaysia's education facilities had drawn the interest of students from less developed countries, but was also a source of attraction to illegal job seekers who found it easier to enter the country with a student pass.
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