The Foreign Spouses Support Group said it had received information of spouses being told to leave the country, with many having their long-term social visit pass applications rejected.
The group’s co-founder Bina Ramanand said the immediate impact on these binational families or those with a foreign spouse was unnecessary emotional trauma and a depletion of financial resources.
She said many foreign spouses have been told to leave the country when they converted their existing visas to spousal visas. “This is happening at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic where flights are expensive and quarantine is needed.”
Bina said some of the foreign spouses in Malaysia were not even able to go to their embassies to get proper documentation due to movement control order restrictions, health reasons and unfair burden of care.
“There seems to be no consideration whatsoever for these immediate family members of Malaysians or the fact that they are nursing mothers or fathers who may be the sole income earners,
“We are not talking about a trip from Penang to Putrajaya here, but from Kuala Lumpur to Ghana or Kuala Lumpur to Brazil. Back and forth, flight costs can be quite astronomical.
“Due consideration should be made for those who are immediate family members of Malaysians so they don’t suffer needless anxiety and financial strain when resources are low,” she said.
Family Frontiers Malaysia programme manager Melinda Anne Sharlini said clearer guidelines should be laid out for Malaysians with foreign spouses and local-born children so the family unit is kept intact and they are not financially burdened.
She said that given the current pandemic, the government should review its procedures, treat foreign family members of Malaysians with compassion and use digital means to give fast approvals of visas.
“Yes, there are sham marriages but Malaysia is not the only country with sham marriages and that is no reason to treat everyone like they are in sham marriages.
“Other countries have systems to identify sham marriages. The same should be used here to avoid disproportionate and negative impact on women and children,” she said.
On another issue, Melinda pointed to the current immigration online appointment system, which had a three-month waiting list.
She said the long wait has made it impossible to apply for a spousal visa or an extension to a social visit pass, especially with the imposition of an April 21 deadline to “go back home”.
Melinda said that given the rise in the number of binational families and foreigners, the immigration department should increase its staff strength to handle the rise in visa-related service requests.
“There should be greater clarity and transparency of the processes, so as not to have arbitrary interpretations by officers.
“There is a need to treat spouses with respect and dignity, and due consideration should be made to their family status with policies that are family-friendly.”
North-South Initiative executive director Adrian Pereira said the government needs to have empathy for those affected.
“Surely they can leave and come back but why make it difficult when many other borders are closed? We must be more empathetic in handling this.
“Let us spend more time thinking about a holistic formula for those who want to stay – and make it easier for them.”