There Might Be A New Penalty Soon For Losing Your Malaysian Passport
The Immigration Department does not impose fines against those who lost their passports currently.
By Tang Ruxyn — 29 Jun 2017, 05:19 PM
There is currently no penalty against Malaysians who lose their passports, but things may change very soon
The Immigration Department is suggesting a penalty against Malaysians who lose their passports due to negligence.
Its director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said that the government is considering the idea of imposing fines on owners who lose their passports, just as a fine is imposed on for applications for replacement of lost MyKad.
The suggested penalty is between RM200 and RM1,000
"The regulation needs to be changed and the suggestion for losing it the first time is to impose a RM200 fine, the second time a RM500 fine, and for third time onwards a RM1,000 fine."
"This is not an intention to punish but to make people be more responsible for their own passport," Mustafar told Bernama recently.
According to Mustafar, the matter was brought up by the Immigration Department to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the Home Minister, last January. It is said that Zahid has "agreed on it essentially".
Quite a number of Malaysians have been losing their passports carelessly in the last six months
It was reported that there have been 31,287 cases of missing passports between 1 January 2017 and 2 June 2017.
A total of 22,475 passport owners who lodged a report for their missing passport said that they "do not remember where they kept their passport" while 2,858 said that they lost their passports while shifting houses.
Some of the other reasons that were cited in the missing passport reports include, "left in a public transport", "slipped out of a bag or pocket", "stolen or robbed", "lost in a fire or shifting house", or "lost due to natural disasters".
Based on the latest statistics from the Immigration Department, Johor recorded the highest number of cases with 5,734 missing passports, followed by Kuala Lumpur with 4,399 cases, and Selangor with 3,409 cases.
Mustafar has urged fellow Malaysians to be more responsible and safeguard their respective passports
Although a passport is a valuable document that requires owners to safeguard it properly, Mustafar noted that negligence is still one of the most common factors that cause Malaysians to lose their passports.
"(Passport) loss due to theft is still acceptable but if it's happening too frequently, then it is not good," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
He said that the rakyat should not simply place the important document everywhere and file a new application by saying that it has gone missing.
He explained that a passport that was reported as missing would be deactivated and invalidated even if it was rediscovered to avoid it from being misused.