The Immigration Department may tighten procedures for issuing social visit passes in an effort to prevent foreign tourists from engaging in prostitution, director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud said today.

This is one of several proposals under consideration by the department to ensure that foreign tourists do not abuse social visit passes when in the country, he said.

“They (foreign tourists) may have to undergo questioning at entry points (before the pass is issued). 

"Nevertheless, there has to be a thorough study on this, because we do not want tourists to feel we are too strict on them,” he told reporters here.

Earlier, Khairul Dzaimee led the Ops Gegar operation that resulted in the arrest of 69 foreign nationals suspected to have committed immigration offences at several locations in George Town and Butterworth.

Nineteen of the foreigners were women aged between 23 and 30 who had come from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, and had been working as customer service employees and offering sex services, he said.

- Bernama