Crime & Courts

Colleges, universities must report 'missing' foreign students

PUTRAJAYA: Colleges and universities must report foreign students who have gone "missing" to the authorities, says Immigration Department director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh.

He said some foreign students misuse their student visas and even though the number of cases was small and isolated, it was still an issue.

"These students would come to college for a while and after that stop attending classes," he said in an interview.

Ruslin said the department recently arrested one Bangladesh national in Kuala Lumpur who was in the country on a student visa.

"But the student made fake passports and sold them to other Bangladeshis.

"There are also cases where foreigners use student visas to work. Such cases may be isolated but we will act," he said, adding the department was intent on curbing the problem.

"Some institutions do not report the absences, by right they have to, because when they do not, it becomes challenging for us to track the foreign students down."

Ruslin said the department will engage Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS), a body under the Higher Education Ministry on the matter soon.

EMGS, among others, serves as a one-stop centre for foreign students pursuing tertiary education in Malaysia.

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