| Follow the procedures even if the process
may take time and most important, an application for permanent resident
(PR) status must be made through proper channels.
The advice came from Immigration Department enforcement
director Datuk Ishak Mohamed Ishak following a highly-publicised
case. Ishak said the case of Abdul Mutalib Taib was the first where PR
status was revoked by the National Registration Department (NRD) and where
a PR-status person was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
 Ishak: PR applications must be made through proper
channels
He added that immigrants could still stay in the
country using the longer visitor passes.
"The law is clear enough and everybody, including those applying
for PR, have to follow proper procedures," he said.
Abdul Mutalib, 47, an Indonesian who arrived in Malaysia in 1978 to
work here, applied for PR status in 1989 and it was granted by the NRD.
But when his PR status was revoked, Abdul Mutalib went into hiding
instead of surrendering himself.
It was reported that NRD Investigations and Enforcement unit
director Datin Habsah Wahid had said Abdul Mutalib's PR was revoked under
Section 8(3)(k) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 (Amendment 2002).
The reasons for the order are not known.
However, when Abdul Mutalib turned up at the NRD office recently to
apply for his eldest son's identity card, the authorities arrested him. As
he had violated the Immigration Act, he was handed over to the Immigration
Department for further action.
A notice of deportation for Abdul Mutalib was issued on April 22,
and he can be deported to Medan, Indonesia, as the period of his appeal
has lapsed.
Abdul Mutalib's wife, Romita Hasibuan, sent a memorandum to the
Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) office last Wednesday,
claiming that her husband was wrongly arrested.
She was accompanied by her children, Maruly Aziz, 12, Sarah Nor,
11, Yonatan Adam Fauzi, nine. and Ismail Syah Putra, six.
The memorandum, among others, had pleaded with Suhakam to help the
family fight for their rights as immigrants to this country.
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