16.03.2012
Syndicates specialising in the flesh trade are reaping millions of ringgit every year, thanks to a loophole in a regulation meant to cut red tape.
The loophole allows these syndicates to bring in foreign women to work as guest relations officers and sex workers, but lends an air of legitimacy by making it easy for them to enter into sham marriages with local men to secure a permit for long-term stays.
Introduced by Pemudah, a high-powered task force set up in 2007 to address bureaucracy in business-to-government dealings, the regulation directs the Immigration Department to issue long-term passes (for five years straight) to spouses of Malaysians.
The department does this despite acknowledging that there are many cases of "marriages of convenience".
The directive came following a Pemudah meeting chaired by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan on April 10, 2010.
Almost overnight, stringent checks that had been put in place by the department to weed out bogus marriages were thrown out of the window.
Prior to the introduction of the regulation, citizens of watch-list countries, such as China, India, Indonesia and some African nations, who married locals, would have to renew their visas every month for about a year, after which they would be renewed annually.
Approval sometimes hinges on the outcome of interviews conducted by the department.
Usually, after more than 10 years, applicants would apply for permanent resident status.
It's a Catch-22 situation for the National Registration and Immigration departments. As long as the applicants' papers are in order, the departments' hands are tied and they have to approve these applications.
In 2000, the number of Chinese, Thais and Vietnamese who entered the country to marry local men was 901. Ten years on, that number was 5,285.
From January to October last year, the number was 4,308.
In total, close to 40,000 foreign spousal visas were issued since 2000 to citizens of these three countries.
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