Over the past five years, the Federal Government has barred more than 800,000 Malaysians – or roughly 2.6% of the total population, or roughly one in every 40 people you meet – from leaving the country.
In the Dewan Rakyat today, Bernama reports that the Home Ministry responded to a question from Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa of DAP, who wanted to know how many Malaysians had been blacklisted from exiting the country by the Immigration Department since 2011.
According to the Home Ministry’s numbers, out of a total of 827,921 Malaysians on the blacklist, 200,727 of them were placed because of bankruptcy; 118,892 were barred for defaulting on their student loans; and 520 people are no longer allowed to leave the country because they flouted national security laws.
Malaysians who are on the Immigration Department’s blacklist are not able to leave the country except if they receive explicit permission from the relevant authorities.
