Destinations known | How did seven Chinese tourists arriving in Malaysian state of Sabah slip through immigration undetected?
- Travellers from China have been detained and prosecuted for bypassing immigration checks at Kota Kinabalu International Airport
- Beijing’s consulate in Sabah accuses officials of treating Chinese citizens differently
Nothing kills the post-holiday buzz like arriving at the airport only to slot into a long, slow line at passport control. However, for four mainland Chinese tourists departing from Tawau Airport, in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on Borneo, the queue was the least of their concerns. They had failed, somehow, to get their passports stamped on the way into the country, and the quartet were held, from December 10, for 18 days at a detention centre.
Bilingual news portal Free Malaysia Today reported that the women, aged 22 to 25, arrived on December 4 at Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), where they transferred to an internal flight to Tawau, bypassing mandatory immigration checks.
And it wasn’t the only time tourists had slipped into the country, according to a report in English-language newspaper The Star: “Several remedial measures have been proposed to prevent the recurrence of foreign tourists failing to get their passports stamped on arrival at KKIA.” On January 6, Sabah’s English-language newspaper the Daily Express reported that another three Chinese nationals were being held in Tawau because their passports were without stamps.
Most of these “remedial measures” seem to be aimed at Chinese tourists, who are expected to descend in droves during “Visit Malaysia Year 2020”, for which the government has lifted restrictions on travellers from China and India to offer 15-day visa-free entry. According to Free Malaysia Today, Sabah’s immigration department has urged airlines, travel agencies and the Chinese embassy to advise visitors to comply with immigration regulations.
State tourism, culture and environment minister Christina Liew detailed the procedures that would be taken to ensure no one else slipped into the country undetected and, therefore, illegally. They include: signs to point the way between the international arrivals area, the transborder section and the domestic travel area, and bigger Chinese characters on signage. KKIA, Sandakan and Tawau airports would be recruiting additional Mandarin-speaking immigration and airport staff, said Liew.