Visa harassment

I went to Malaysian Embassy at Baridhara with my friend a few days back for student visa submission. We saw a public notice at the notice board in front of the entry gate that informed "Malaysia Embassy will not receive any individual student's file till further notice". We asked the man at the gate, "What should we do now?" He told us to get in touch with Malaysian Embassy's tourist agents for dropping the file at the deposit counter. We contacted a number of enlisted tourist agents. They informed us that it could take more than three months to get visa approval in exchange of an exorbitant amount of agency fees.

We decided to get the visa directly from the embassy and not through any agency. Accordingly, we went to the embassy again and did so for next two days. On one of those days we observed that gateman was allowing some  people to enter the mission. We went to gateman and asked him to allow us to enter. But he told us to seek recommendations from any of embassy officials or political leaders.

Finally on the third day during the embassy opening hour, one Malaysian gentleman (Embassy Visa official) came out and took a few of the students inside along with us. He explained us that some people are doing dodgy business using his name and designation. He received individual student files in a friendly manner. I was very disappointed at the way innocent students seeking visa are harassed by some unscrupulous embassy men.

Bipul K Debnath

BA (Hons) in English Literature, Dhaka College, Dhaka

bipul_d2008@yahoo.com