Malaysia bans entry from 23 countries including the Philippines

It was last week when Malaysia’s Senior Defense Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob reportedly announced a ban on entry of long-term visit pass holders from India, Indonesia, and the Philippines due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the said countries. Later on, he added that the ban now applies to any country with more than 150,000 cumulative infections of the novel coronavirus.

(Do you think the COVID-19 curve in the Philippines will start to flatten by September?)

Here is the complete list of countries included in Malaysia’s entry ban:

  • India
  • USA
  • Brazil
  • Russia
  • Peru
  • Colombia
  • South Africa
  • Mexico
  • Spain
  • Argentina
  • Chile
  • Iran
  • United Kingdom
  • Bangladesh
  • Saudi Arabia
  • France
  • Turkey
  • Italy
  • Germany
  • Iraq
  • Pakistan
  • Indonesia

Apparently, travelers with permanent resident status, Malaysia My Second Home program participants, expatriates, professional visit pass holders, resident pass holders, spouses of Malaysian citizens and their children, and even students from the listed countries cannot return to Malaysia.

(These airlines offer sightseeing ‘flights to nowhere’!)

Even though the ban applies to all travelers, the Malaysian government is said to grant exemptions for emergency cases or matters pertaining to bilateral relations and would require special permission from their Immigration Department.

As of writing, there are 238,727 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines and 9,459 in Malaysia.


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