IT was shocking to say the least when I saw the Attorney General’s report that between 2016 and 2018, 76,258 Chinese tourists who entered Malaysia had no records of having ‘exited’ or had gone out the way that they had entered. This figure accounted for 95.6 per cent of all Chinese tourists who had entered Malaysia.
Similarly, out of the 41,243 Indian tourist arrivals between 2017 and 2018, 39,806 or 96.5 per cent of them had no exit records either.
Added together a quick calculation tells us that no less than 35 ‘tourists’ go missing and are unaccounted for every day – that’s equivalent to almost a quarter of a planeload of an average Boeing 737-700 every single day.
The big question now is what has happened to them?
First, we must query the figures given by the authorities. Admittedly an audit had found that the data of some 1.26 million Chinese nationals and 295,634 Indian nationals were still being processed manually under the new integrated Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs).
We all know too well that with manual processing, a noticeable human error element will always exist – errors which may or may not be intended or overlooked. But how could such big numbers have gone through the system unnoticed or overlooked? It’s not a matter of a few hundred, or even a few thousands, but 116,064 over three years!
An experienced eye as well as an ordinary man on the street could provide the authorities with a few possibilities of where these ‘missing tourists’ have apparently disappeared to.
Firstly, it goes without saying that the ones who had purposely chosen to overstay or never bothered to exit the country had fully intended to do so in the first place. They had entered the country with the sole purpose of finding work – look for a job or, having previously entered before, continue working at their various respective workplaces. A few may be joining family members or friends. I would believe that very few are genuine tourists at all.
Let’s start at the top of this missing tourists pyramid.
These would be what I like to term as the pink lady workers – those who have either been here before and have found success working at the many reflexology centres, beauty salons, health clubs, night clubs, and pubs; or the ones who are being brought in by dubious employers; or the ones who came on their own having heard there’s money to be made in this trade.
They will often be under the watchful eye and management of the local ‘water trade’ (using a Japanese Yakuza term here) captains of industry. These taikos (big brothers) will have influence with certain authorities and key men to be able to handle any situation which may force these ‘tourists’ to be detained, arrested, or charged if and when found out.
In this category will fall most of the females from the PRC, virtually none from the Indian side.
The second category will be what I call the tradesmen and women. These are usually itinerant merchants and traders, both males and females, and would also include many Indian males – who come in specifically to sell products, ranging from semiprecious stones to gimmicky toys, from smart phone accessories to carpets, and magic portions too many to mention. They are usually in groups and managed by syndicates; however, there are also lone rangers who travel into the interior to ply their trade there as well.
In this category too are the many who have been recruited into the construction sector, where you find them working on small contract jobs like road and drain maintenance to huge projects like building mega jobs such as hospitals, high rise condos, complexes, and major road and highway construction.
Also in this category are those to be found in the food and beverage industry – and this one sector attracts them all – both Chinese and Indians, males and females.
If you visit any sizable food court these days, you are more than likely to find a few of these ‘missing tourists’ here, working as waiters, cleaners, and cooks – from delivering your teh tarik to tossing your roti canai, and cooking your masalas and dim sums.
Indeed, I have even eaten from a number of these ‘missing tourists’, who can come up with a pretty tasty Foochow kampua mee or tosai!
Only the other day, I had read that they reckon without these workers from Bangladesh and India, most of the Indian eateries in Kuala Lumpur would have to close shop. I’m glad that we haven’t quite reached that stage yet over here in Sarawak. But who knows when that day might come?
Last but not least, we come to the least enviable segment of where these missing tourists have disappeared to.
These are the so-called beggars, or workers who appear to be handicapped in one way or another and are always seen begging at nightspots and the more popular food courts all over town, usually at night.
They are brought in by syndicates, who would lodge and feed them, and like clockwork every evening would provide transport to drop them off at the various pre-arranged nightspots for them to go around and do their work – to simply beg for money. They would work the nightspots swiftly and be in and out before anyone could raise a ruckus or call for enforcement assistance. They could still be able to garner enough sympathy from some locals and other tourists to be able to return to their bases every night and have some ‘income’ to show for their evening’s work. The cycle goes on every night come rain or shine.
There you have it – where I think (and have seen) all those ‘missing tourists’.
I have no idea how they would eventually manage to exit the country at some stage without any record of having done so; but can only offer guesses and presumptions. Maybe they had gone by road via the porous borders at either Serikin or Tebakang? Maybe there are illegal tikus (mouse) routes through the jungles between us and Brunei, or Sabah, or Kalimantan?
How they had managed to do so has now become a rather grave security concern and the authorities must endeavour to do more to find out what has been happening to all these ‘missing tourists’ in our midst!
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