Malaysia stops issuing visas to Indian citizens
Malaysia stops issuing visas to Indian citizens
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): The Malaysian High Commission in New
Delhi has stopped issuing visas to Indian citizens in a move to
prevent the plague outbreak there spreading to Malaysia, local
newspapers reported yesterday.
The High Commission's information officer Dunstan Melling was
quoted as saying the High Commission had rejected all 40 visa
applications it received on Friday, the day the government's
directive was issued.
The directive to stop issuing visas, also in effect at the
Malaysian consulate in the southern city of Madras, would be in
force until further notice, he said.
Malaysia's deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub said on
Saturday the visa ban would be lifted once the Indian government
provided an assurance the outbreak of the pneumonic plague was
under control.
Officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.
National carrier Malaysian Airlines (MAS) suspended all
flights to and from India last week because of the outbreak.
The Star newspaper reported that every passenger arriving from
India will be quarantined for six days upon arrival in Malaysia.
The paper quoted health minister Lee Kim Sai as saying the
measure was necessary as merely screening arriving passengers was
considered ineffective.
The plague outbreak in India has so far killed 51 people and
there are some 3,000 other suspected cases across the country.
In Bangkok, Thai Airways International (THAI) has suspended
flights to New Delhi and Calcutta until the plague epidemic in
India ends, an airline official said yesterday.
Thailand's flag carrier halted one-way flights to and from
those cities late Saturday, the official said, adding that the
ban would be reviewed on a "day-to-day basis."
Last Saturday, THAI ordered crews flying to New Delhi and
beyond not to stay overnight in the Indian capital.
Staff on flights to and from London and Amsterdam via New
Delhi normally spend the night in the Indian capital to rest,
with the crew that arrived the previous day taking the second
half of the journey.
Crews
But the airline ordered its crews Saturday not to leave the
airport, and for the same crew to fly the second leg of the trip,
dailies reported.
To ease the extra work, the airline has added one extra pilot
and one more cabin attendant to each flight, reports said.
To prevent its spread to Thailand, doctors now board every
plane from India that arrives at Bangkok's international airport
and examine all passengers and crew before they are allowed to
leave the aircraft.
So far no one infected with the plague has been detected here.
In Yangon, Myanmar is taking nationwide preventive measures to
stem the entry of the pneumonic plague that has struck
neighboring India, a state-run newspaper reported yesterday.
Health officials are checking at airports for symptoms of
plague among incoming passengers, the New Light of Myanmar said.
The country is also launching a nationwide sanitation drive to
minimize the rat population while warning the public to report
any symptom of the killer disease immediately.
The report noted Myanmar saw 528 cases of plague with three
deaths in 1992, and 87 cases without any fatality in 1993.