Kedah immigration director Ridzwan Zain said most of the cases involved people who had been blacklisted by the income tax department or because they had outstanding customs tax issues, Bernama reported.

He said the data on these cases were obtained from the Bukit Kayu Hitam immigration, customs, quarantine and security (ICQS) complex.

“A total of 20 people were not allowed to leave the country due to income tax arrears and another nine people had outstanding customs tax issues.

“There were also 10 cases involving damaged passports such as being torn, water-damaged, missing pages and pages which had scratches,” he said in a statement today.

Ridzwan said to avoid last-minute stress and disappointment, all Malaysians are advised to check their travel status online at the immigration’s travel check system (SSPI) portal before making any plans to travel overseas.

“They only need to enter their MyKad number in the SSPI portal to know whether or not they are on the travel restriction list,” he said.