Isu pasport lebih 10 tahun kesilapan serius perancangan, ujian, kata Lip Eng
Ahli Parlimen Kepong itu menggesa pihak yang meluluskannya pengeluarkan pasport itu bertanggungjawab.
Jabatan Imigresen has temporarily halted the issuance of passports with validity periods exceeding 10 years following reports from several travelers about issues at immigration points when returning from certain foreign airlines. Penang MP Lim Lip Eng has blamed the Immigration Department for a design oversight that has caused Malaysian travelers to face difficulties when clearing immigration with specific airlines due to the extended passport validity.
Lim welcomed the announcement of 10-year validity passports on July 1st as a measure to facilitate citizens' affairs, but stressed that the basic implementation must be done correctly. "The government cannot make Malaysian passports into a testing ground for new policies and then ignore the issues as technicalities. This is a serious failure in design and testing," he said in a statement.
Yesterday, Immigration Department Chief Zakaria Shaaban announced the temporary suspension of passport issuance with validity periods over 10 years following reports from several passengers about problems clearing immigration with a specific foreign airline. The department must have at least six months of validity for long-haul flights.
Zakaria Shaaban said an ICAO survey confirmed there is no regulation prohibiting passports from having a validity period of more than 10 years. However, as a temporary measure, the Immigration Department has decided to issue passports with a maximum validity of 10 years while the issue is resolved with ICAO and airlines. Those holding passports with validity periods over 10 years will receive free replacements, with the new passports having a maximum validity of 10 years.
Lim stated that the Immigration Department has issued 26,000 new passports with validity periods over 10 years due to the carryover of remaining validity from previous passports. He urged the Ministry of Interior to immediately conduct an independent audit to determine who proposed, tested, and approved the new policy, as well as to disclose the full cost of replacement passports.
"26,000 passports have been issued before the problem was fixed. Identify those who approved it. Make them accountable. They cannot hide behind technical excuses."
Written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
