More than 700k Malaysians blacklisted from leaving country

SEPANG: More than half of the 708,460 Malaysians who have been blacklisted and blocked from leaving the country until today, have defaulted on loans from the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN), according to the Immigration Department.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said that 447,890 individuals were put on the blacklist because they failed to service their PTPTN loans for tertiary education.
This was followed by those blacklisted by the Malaysia Department of Insolvency (138,028 people), the Inland Revenue Board (107,884), the Employees Provident Fund (7,024), the Customs Department (6,091) and the Immigration Department (1,543).
Mustafar said to allow travellers to check if they are blacklisted, three kiosks have been installed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
"There are almost 800,000 Malaysians on the blacklist," he said at the launch of the kiosks at KLIA today.
"With these kiosks, we are offering a public service so that they can verify their status before going to the passport counter," he added.
The department hopes to have more similar kiosks at other international airports in Malaysia.