Singaporean couple banned from entering Malaysia after questioning immigration officer

By Hoang Vu   May 22, 2023 | 11:09 pm PT
Singaporean couple banned from entering Malaysia after questioning immigration officer
A view of the Tuas Second Link that connects Singapore and Johor State in Malaysia. Photo by Calvin Teo
A Singaporean couple claim they have been banned from entering Malaysia for six months after questioning the way an immigration officer stamped their passports.

Sharing his ordeal on social media, Abdul Qayyum Rahim said he and his wife were heading to Johor Baru via the Tuas checkpoint on May 20.

They had to wait for an hour at the checkpoint because only two counters were open. When the couple reached the counter, an officer asked them to remove their passport covers.

After verifying their particulars, the officer proceeded to stamp the passports.

"Upon checking the passports, I noticed that the officer had purposely left a blank page on my passport. As for my wife's passport, the officer stamped on page 27 before scribbling on it and re-stamped on page 28 for no good reason," he said.

Feeling dissatisfied, he went to the office where he asked a male officer the procedure on how to lodge a complaint against the officer at the counter. However, he claimed that the male officer raised his voice and told them to lodge the complaint online.

"After my wife asked him a few times on how to do it on the website, he was irritated and took our passports from us. We were taken to another office where we were issued with a 'refusal of entry' letter by a female officer," he wrote on a Facebook post that has received over 2,000 comments and 2,900 shares.

Images show the Singaporean couple are banned from entering Malaysia for six months. Photos courtesy of Abdul Qayyum Rahim

Images show the Singaporean couple are banned from entering Malaysia for six months. Photos courtesy of Abdul Qayyum Rahim's Facebook page

He said when they asked for an explanation as to why they were issued with the letter, the female officer refused to answer.

"Instead, she raised her voice and sarcastically gave us a choice of being banned from Malaysia for either six months or a year. After which, she told us we were banned for six months from entering Malaysia for no valid reason."

Malaysian immigration authorities have yet to comment on the official reason behind the ban.

 
 
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