I am a foreign student undertaking post-graduate studies Malaysia's prestigious Universiti Malaya, paying high tuition fees and holding valid student visa. Kindly allow me to relate a traumatic and humiliating incident which occurred to me and my fellow student on April 14.

It was about 11.30pm at Taman Miharja (near Cheras), Kuala Lumpur. A group of Rela members came to our flat and knocked the door. They asked us how many people are staying in the flat and then told us to get out of the flat with our passports and documents.

We were forced to go down to a nearby open space beside a LRT station where we found approximately 150 people (all foreigners in that apartment block) already gathered with their documents.

The Rela officers asked us to line up in two rows before ordering us to sit down. After a while, they divided the whole crowd into a few groups based on their respective country of origin. They then checked everyone's passport and travel documents for around two hours.

Now my question is this: We know Malaysia is cracking down on illegal immigrants but why do those with valid documents like me have face such humiliating checks? Why had all of us to go down and sit in a queue late at night in an open space?

They could have checked our passports at our own flat without asking all of us to come down and squat like 'criminals'.

I felt extremely humiliated for being treated like an illegal immigrant. I wonder if other foreign students in Malaysia have faced such similar treatment during this whole illegal migrant workers crackdown .

Malaysia wants to attract foreign students to come and study here besides making the country a knowledge hub for the Asian region. But if foreign students have to face the kind of treatment I received from Rela members, I have no doubt that this objective will become a reality. It will only remain a vision.