Looks like Nas Daily videos will stick to the setting of Singapore for a couple more days — not that his Singaporean fans will object. In a fan meet up event yesterday held at Mediacorp’s MES Theatre, the Facebook star revealed that he’ll be extending his stay here as his visa application to Indonesia has been rejected.
The 26-year-old travel vlogger — whose real name is Nuseir Yassin — revealed to The Straits Times that he could see why the visa application to his next destination was rejected.
“It’s too sensitive to admit an Israeli right now,” he said to ST. “And I’m not just a normal tourist, I’m a video blogger… I can see how my presence would get politicised.”
The Israeli-Palestinian uses an Israeli passport to travel, which means tough access to countries that do not recognize the state of Israel — including neighboring Malaysia, which Yassin made a video about during his time here. A visa is required for Israeli passport holders into Indonesia, but it’s difficult for them to even obtain one, considering the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In June, Indonesian immigration authorities denied visas to 53 Israeli citizens, simply citing “sensitive” grounds behind the decisions.
But seeing how Nas Daily clips rack up millions of views each day, and how his content leans on the more positive and inspirational side of things, (plus the fact that Yassin is Muslim), one would think that the Indonesian authorities would let him in. In a Facebook post only visible to Indonesians, he wrote a tearful explanation on why he was not able to visit the country, which is the “only country I wanted to put an effort to visiting”.
“I wanted to show the world the beauty of Indonesia in the most apolitical, pure way possible,” he wrote.
Nas Daily (a Facebook celebrity who has 7.8 million subscribers including me) got denied his visa to visit Indonesia! 😱 pic.twitter.com/IKV4WDs3Up
— Trinity #69CaraTravelingGratis (@TrinityTraveler) September 1, 2018
He arrived in Singapore back on Aug 22 and has been pretty busy churning out his trademark one-minute videos about the city-state — amidst accusations that he was being handsomely paid by the Singapore Tourism Board to portray the nation in good light.
It’s unclear for now where Yassin is taking off next, but for now, he’s staying in Singapore for another three or four days — and that means more local content from the man. The latest one published this morning focuses on NEWater, the country’s high-grade, ultra-clean, potable water that’s reclaimed from treated wastewater.
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