Coroner & Legal
Nick Xenophon: Security Risk !
An Australian senator on a fact-finding mission to Malaysia says he has been refused entry because authorities consider him a “security risk”.
Nick Xenophon was detained at Kuala Lumpur airport on Saturday morning and will be deported back to Australia, correspondents say.
He was part of an Australian delegation scheduled to meet Malaysian officials to discuss upcoming elections.
Mr Xenophon has been an outspoken critic of human rights in Malaysia.
The independent senator from South Australia was taken into custody at Kuala Lumpur airport on Saturday morning and detained apparently under Malaysia’s national security laws, the BBC’s Nick Bryant reports from Sydney.
Immigration officials were polite but acting under orders “from above”, Mr Xenophon told reporters.
“I was told I am a security risk and I can’t be allowed into the country. It’s bizarre and extraordinary,” the senator said.
“I’ve been here before [and] I’ve made statements about the state of Malaysian democracy previously. But on this occasion clearly someone high up in the Malaysian government doesn’t want me here.”
Authorities advised Mr Xenophon he would deported on the next available flight to Australia.
“They have basically told me I am an enemy of the state. They are trying to get me on the next plane out of here and back home,” he told the Australian Sunday Mail newspaper by phone.