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KOTA KINABALU: The Tourism and Environment Court – last active in 2018 to hear the catamaran tragedy involving the deaths of several Chinese tourists –  will be revived in the wake of the latest detention of four young women tourists from China for 18 days at the Tawau detention centre.

The offence was merely the failure to have an entry chop in their passports. Political Secretary to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law), Martin Tommy, said his Minister Datuk VK Liew expressed the wish to revive the court to Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak, Tan Sri David Wong Dak Wah, who has agreed to look into it.

“The main purpose of the Tourism Court is to enable criminal and civil cases involving tourists in the State to be speedily heard before they returned home,” said Martin after accompanying Liew on a site inspection of the KKIA on Monday at 3.05am upon his arrival from China.

Also present were State Immigration Director Datuk Dr Muhamad Sade Mohamad Amin and Immigration officers.

Martin said the Minister wanted to revive the Tourism Court as tourists have a time limit on their stay in Malaysia and, therefore, need to have their cases heard quickly.

“A dedicated and assigned judge hears tourism cases on fast-track.”  In 2017, a Tourism Court heard the case of a boat owner who ferried a group of Chinese tourists on an unlicensed boat to Pulau Mengalum. Four tourists died and five were missing while 22 were rescued when the catamaran sank.

“Cases such as the four women tourists who flouted the immigration laws could have been dealt with by the Tourism Court expeditiously,” said Martin.

Dr Muhamad Sade briefed Liew on the movements of the four women tourists upon their arrival at around 6am and how they went through the domestic terminal and ended up at the departure gate to Tawau without going through the transit counter.

“The Minister was satisfied with the explanation as their movements were captured on CCTV and there were unexplainable reasons only known to themselves,” said Martin.

Martin said Liew suggested that  improvements be made on the signages that were not easily visible, especially when there are hundreds of tourists arriving at the same time.

“When the Minister arrived at 3.05am from Guangzhou, there were about 200 passengers on the flight. At the same time, there were flights from other parts of China, Korea and Japan. 

“Liew was pleasantly surprised to see hundreds of tourists arriving at KKIA at such early hours,” said Martin, adding that the Minister only could imagine how busy the immigration officers were and appreciate them for their hard work in such early hours on a daily basis.

“However,  the Immigration Department must not be too heavy handed but compassionate in dealing with genuine cases of negligence or innocent tourists and, if necessary, provide full assistance to them rather than throwing the book at them as what happened in the case of the four women tourists,” said Martin.

The four China nationals, Zhang Qingsi, 23, Wang Xiali, 25, Wu Jingting, 24 and Liu Ling, 22, arrived at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on Dec 14 and didn’t go through immigration for transit to Tawau. 

They got out from the Tawau airport and spent their time there and in Semporna until they returned to the airport on Dec 19 and were detained when it was found that their passports had no entry chop. 

The four women were charged in the Tawau Sessions Court last Saturday to 18 days jail each but were freed immediately following time served. They left for home on Monday.

China’s Consulate here, Monday, expressed regret that while it is doing its best to help Sabah’s tourism industry, its citizens were not being treated the same as those from other countries.

Elaborating on the “double standards” by the department, he asked why 20 of its citizens faced arrest and prosecution for failure to have entry chop in their passports through fault not totally their own, but other nationals were let off with a compound.