Of the total, 165 will be brought back to Malaysia while 141 will transferred to Malaysia Hall in Jakarta because of visa issues, it said.

“The students will be taken back to Malaysia via commercial flights to expedite the process of evacuation,” the agency said in a statement today.

The remaining 141 will be transferred using local flights to Jakarta and will be at the Malaysia Hall evacuation centre until the situation improves, it said.

Nadma said some of the students transferred to Jakarta need to reapply for visas, which will take a longer time, while some are new students waiting for the approval of their Temporary Stay Permit Card (KITAS) from the Indonesian immigration authorities.

Riau governor Syamsuar declared an emergency from yesterday to Oct 31. It will be extended if the air pollution situation does not improve.

The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) announced that the air pollutant index stood at 763 in Jambi and 694 in Pekanbaru at noon today.

According to Nadma, Indonesia uses the PM10 to measure the API while Malaysia bases it on PM2.5.

Clear skies return to Malaysia

In Malaysia, clear skies were back after many parts of the country were enveloped in haze for the past two weeks.

Nadma said conditions were better following the onset of the inter-monsoon today, which will continue until early November.

The inter-monsoon means southwest winds have changed direction, it said.

All schools in the country were open as usual today as API readings fell further. Only seven areas recorded unhealthy API readings as at 6pm compared to 14 at noon.

The seven areas are Johan Setia, Klang (161) and Klang (108) in Selangor, Seri Manjung (127) and Tasek (111) in Perak, Putrajaya (107), Nilai in Negeri Sembilan (110) and Temerloh, Pahang (102).

Fifty-nine areas recorded moderate API readings.

An API reading of between 0 and 50 is categorised as good, 51-100 moderate, 101-200 unhealthy, 201-300 very unhealthy, and 300 and above hazardous.