Malaysia plans to join visa waiver programme in 18 months - Zahid

Malaysia aims to join the United States visa waiver programme in the next 18 months, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said the programme would enable Malaysians to enter US without applying for visas and will allow them to stay in the US for a maximum of 90-day period for tourism or business purposes.

To date, 37 countries have participated in the programme including neighbouring countries namely Singapore and Brunei, he told Malaysian media, here, Saturday (Sunday in Malaysia).

Zahid said the visa waiver programme was discussed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and US President Barack Obama when the latter visited Malaysia last April.

He said Malaysia was improvising its checklist including enforcing stringent measures such as Malaysians who lost their passport need to report within 24 hours.

Zahid said the programme could further enhance the flow of investors, tourists and students from Malaysia to US, and security screening could be done in Malaysia before Malaysians enter the US.

He also said Malaysia would change its entire border security checking system in a move for a stringent checking including detecting those on the suspects list.

Zahid said he would be meeting with the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson in Washington D.C Sunday (Sunday in Malaysia too).

He also said Malaysia and the United States had stepped up their cooperation in combating terrorism.

Zahid said he had discussions with senior officials of the counter-terrorism unit here on law and operational aspects in tackling the issue on the allegation that Malaysia has been the training ground for Malaysian terrorists fighting in Syria and Iraq.

“We also exchanged information on the involvement of suspected Malaysian terrorists as well as foreign terrorists who are said to have used Malaysia as the transit point before going to other countries,” he said.

Zahid confirmed that 34 Malaysians have joined the so-called Islamic States (IS) in Syria and Yemen.

On another note, Zahid said Malaysia was working towards improving its Tier 3 to Tier 2 status in addressing the human trafficking issue.