MP SPEAKS | Strengthen SOPs instead of banning foreigners from red zones

MP SPEAKS | On Sept 1, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced a total ban on citizens from India, Indonesia and the Philippines from entering Malaysia.

Yesterday, on Thursday, Sept 3, he announced that this ban will be extended to countries with more than 150,000 total Covid-19 cases, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Bangladesh.

This ban, which was announced to start on Sept 7, 2020, includes citizens from these countries who are Permanent Residents in Malaysia, those who hold Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) status, expatriates with valid work permits in Malaysia and including those with Professional Visitors Passes (PVP), those with residential passes, spouses of Malaysians who hold spouse visas and students who have valid student visas to study in Malaysia.

Instead of this blanket ban, we should strengthen our standard operating procedures (SOPs) on foreigners travelling from red zones into Malaysia and ensure that they go through a proper quarantine process...