IRAQ is no longer a high-risk country, and Malaysia should reopen its embassy in the republic in order to attracts more Iraqi students, said an Iraqi diplomat.

Abdul Al Jalil, the cultural advisor at the Iraqi Embassy in Malaysia, said the number of Iraqi students coming to Malaysia has seen a steep decline from 5,500 to 3,257 students in the last five years.

He added that the absence of a Malaysian embassy in Iraq makes it tougher for their students to apply or fulfil certain conditions imposed by Malaysian authorities.

“The Malaysian embassy closed in 2003 and it is an obstacle for our students coming into this country due to the lack of access to Malaysian government officials.

“We hope with the new government government in place, they will reopen the embassy in Baghdad. Then the number of Iraqi students to Malaysia will increase,” Abdul said.

Iraqi students already in Malaysia have complained that it was getting difficult for them to continue their studies here following regulations and stipulations imposed by the immigration department.

They claim these were largely because Iraq was still seen as a high-risk country by Malaysia following the US invasion in 2003 as well as the turmoil and uncertainty caused by the Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

Abdul said these remained an obstacle for students who wished to study in Malaysia, although the ties between the countries were strong.

“It feels like we are on the high-risk list, although it is not official.

“Since 2014, we knew that there were possibilities of these ‘high-risk lists’ because of the wars, but diplomatically, we mostly have a good relations with Malaysia,” he said.

With no progress in Malaysia reopening its embassy in Baghdad, Iraqi students are now looking into other countries for their education.

“Many Iraqi students used to come to Malaysia because it is a Muslim country, it has reputable universities, halal food and because universities like UM and UPM ranked highly,” he said, adding that this was no longer the case.

He also noted that the requirements imposed on Iraqi students to study here were excessive, including the need for students from countries without an embassy (like Iraq) to get approvals from Malaysian embassies in neighbouring countries.

“This means Iraqi students have to go to Malaysian embassies in neighbouring countries like Jordan and Turkey, and then, these countries become the preferred destination for the Iraqi students.

“They are allowed three months visitation of the country, without visa approvals, and students end up studying in different countries instead of coming to Malaysia,” he said.  

Abdul said when Pakatan Harapan won, there was an exchange of congratulations between Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his then-Iraqi counterpart Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi.

“We hope that the government considers reopening the Malaysian embassy in Iraq so that we can have a direct link with Malaysia,” he said. – AFP, December 26, 2018.