PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department revoked the passports of sex blogger Alvin Tan and activist Ali Abd Jalil effective immediately, but they still retain their Malaysian citizenship.

Immigration director-general Datuk Mustafa Ibrahim announced this today, saying the two would be informed of the revocation latest by tomorrow by sending a letter to their last known addresses as stated in their passports.

“They are blacklisted in our system. We have just blacklisted Alvin and will do the same for Ali by today,” he said.

Mustafa said the two were the first to have their passports revoked by the immigration department after they had created uneasiness among Malaysians as their actions were seen had gone overboard.

The department, he said, the issuance of a passport was a privilege and not rights given to a citizen.

In this respect, the government had the rights to revoke a passport as clearly stated in the Malaysian passport, Mustafa added.

“The decision to blacklist them is in line with Home Minister (Datuk Seri Dr Zahid Hamidi)’s (statement) and the people’s calls made through various social platforms including via emails to take strict actions against them,” he said.

He added the two could apply for a special travel document-Emergency Certificate (EC)- if they wanted to return to Malaysia.

“They can apply for the EC from the Malaysian embassies,” he said, adding the duo’s status following the revocation of their passports were likened to illegal immigrants without proper travel documents.

On whether the two would be detained once they set foot in Malaysia, Mustafa said that would be the jurisdiction of other agencies.

Alvin Tan was reported to have gone to the United States to seek for asylum and Ali did the same in Sweden.