She said this was the reason why the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, through its manifesto for the 14th general election, pledged to remove the names of loan defaulters from the Immigration Department’s blacklist.
“The pledge was made because every citizen has a right to freedom of movement.
“If you look at those who take bank loans, their names will not be placed on the Immigration Department’s blacklist if they stop paying or are inconsistent in their repayments. Their names will only be blacklisted after they are declared bankrupt,” she said.
Teo said in future, the government would have to first declare PTPTN loan defaulters as bankrupts before they can be put on the Immigration blacklist.
She said this in reply to a supplementary question in the Dewan Rakyat from Dr Azman Ismail (PH-Kuala Kedah) who asked why the PH government made the pledge to lift the travel ban on PTPTN loan defaulters.
Last month, PTPTN chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan, said that the names of 429,945 loan defaulters had been removed from the Immigration Department’s blacklist in stages from May 24.
He said the “whitening” process was completed on June 8.