Returnees who refuse to pay for quarantine charges will be sent to ILAs - Ismail Sabri

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4  -- Those who return home from overseas and refuse to pay quarantine charges or sign the letter of undertaking (LoU) will be sent to the Public Training Institutes (ILA), said Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said these institutes belong to the government, therefore, the returnees could be placed there without having to pay a deposit.

"At the ILAs, they will be given 14 days to settle the charges of RM150 per day, if they fail to do so, they can be slapped with RM1,000 compound and court action," he said in a statement here today.

Ismail Sabri said the quarantine charges at hotels or at ILAs are of the same amount.

Meanwhile, he said students from the B40 families could seek exemption from paying quarantine costs by informing the secretariat on duty upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

Ismail Sabri said the secretariat would check with the Inland Revenue Board database and the eligible students would be given an approval letter that needs to be submitted to the hotel when registering for a room.

For students who have graduated, only those who are under sponsorship do not need to pay quarantine charges because the costs are borne by the sponsors, he added.

From July 24 until yesterday, a total of 5,281 people arrived at the country's entry points and were sent to 21 hotels and five ILAs in Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Kelantan, Sarawak, Selangor, Perak and Johor.

"Of the total, 13 people have been sent to hospitals for treatment," he explained.

Ismail Sabri said they had returned from 28 countries namely the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, India, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Iran, Nepal, Bangladesh, Taiwan, China, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Egypt, Spain, France and Australia.

He said police carried out 2,078 monitoring visits yesterday to check on individuals under home quarantine and took cumulative action against 80 individuals for flouting the standard operating procedures (SOP).

Ismail Sabri said the Compliance Operations Task Force conducted 60,856 inspections yesterday to monitor and enforce compliance with the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) SOP and detained 104 people for flouting the RMCO. 

Of this number, five people were remanded while 99 were issued compound fines, he said.

Yesterday, police also set up 64 roadblocks in Ops Benteng nationwide to check the entry of illegal immigrants and five people were detained for immigration offences.

The public can channel any information regarding border encroachment or any cross-border criminal activity through the National Task Force hotline at 011-6251 1223.

-- BERNAMA