“The EMGS system must be reviewed because the foreign students are not comprehensively screened before they arrive here,” said Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed, referring to the Education Malaysia Global Services System by its acronym.
He was responding to questions on the existence of foreign Islamic State (IS) members in Malaysia and the case of several foreign nationals suspected to be involved in terrorism activities who were detained by the Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division at several locations in the country from Nov 3 to Dec 16.
The foreign nationals included students at Universiti Antarabangsa Al-Madinah Shah Alam. Police found that one student had already been investigated by foreign authorities for involvement in the IS militant group. This should have raised a red flag when the student was being screened by Malaysia to be allowed to study here.
In September, the student was suspected of being involved in an attempt to obtain sensitive information on security at an international school here while another student was suspected to be abetting him.
Further investigations revealed that another suspect had been detained in the Middle East in 2010 on suspicion of being a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.
The three suspects who were detained in Selangor had been deported to their country of origin on Nov 22 and 23.
The factory operator was detained as he was suspected of planning to smuggle firearms to Poso, Indonesia, and infiltrating into Myanmar to launch an attack.
Nur Jazlan said four suspects were detained by police following surveillance and intelligence work after they had entered the country.
Commenting further, he said the government, through the Immigration Department controlled the entry points such as airports, ports and land routes.
However, he said there were suspects who still managed to get through because information of such people with high-risks of becoming terrorists has not been provided by their country of origin.
“They are also not recorded in the list of suspects. But, we believe there are suspects who are smuggled in through unofficial entry points,” he said.