QuickCheck: Did a foreign teen pose as a child to get a Malaysian passport in Penang?

WITH the Malaysian passport being one of the most valuable in Asia in terms of the countries it can give a person access to, it would seem natural that there would be those who would try to get their hands on one by hook or by crook.

It was claimed recently that a Sri Lankan teenager tried to pose as a local child to get a Malaysian passport in Penang, but was thwarted by Immigration Department officers.

Is this true?

VERDICT:

TRUE

A Sri Lankan teenager’s attempt to secure a Malaysian passport was thwarted when immigration officers at the Komtar Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) Immigration Office detected the deception on Wednesday (Aug 21).

Bernama reported that Penang Immigration director Nur Zulfa Ibrahim said in a statement on Thursday (Aug 22) that the youth presented himself as a 10-year-old boy and added that he was accompanied by a local woman who claimed to be his mother.

She said that the supervisor on duty saw discrepancies between the teenager’s physical appearance and that of a typical 10-year-old and that he struggled to understand the questions asked.

“Subsequently, the head of the office conducted a preliminary investigation into the youth and the woman. It was discovered that the teenager could not speak Malay.

“Further questioning by an officer revealed that his speech did not correspond with the Tamil dialect used by the Indian community here,” she said in the statement.

Nur Zulfa said that the investigation led to a confession by the woman who admitted that she was not the boy’s mother.

She then said that the woman then revealed that she had been paid a sum of money for her involvement, while the teenager confessed that he was a Sri Lankan citizen.

Both the woman and the boy were subsequently detained under the Passport Act 1966 for investigation and further action by the department, she added.

Nur Zulfa then said that the vigilance of the immigration officer on duty has bolstered the reputation of the Malaysian Immigration Department, underscoring its commitment to integrity and safeguarding the country’s sovereignty.