After a post about six Malaysians denied from boarding a flight to Australia went viral, Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar recalled his personal experience of alleged racial profiling by the country's authorities.

"I recently travelled to Australia myself, with my wife and children. And though the trip was memorable and enjoyable, I was also subjected to a similar (albeit less intense) position at the airport," he said in a Facebook post last night.

"The morning of our 10.25am flight from Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur, at around 9.15am on July 12, I became a subject of a certain level of ‘profiling process’ even though as Terengganu menteri besar, I hold a valid Malaysian diplomatic passport.

"The experience was nothing compared to what the six Malaysians experienced, but the whole thing was quite an embarrassing spectacle in front of my wife (also a holder of a diplomatic passport) and my children."

Earlier this week, the six Malaysians intercepted at the KLIA2 boarding gate made headlines after a series of post by Twitter user Reen (@reenzahari), who recounted her personal experience of a planned holiday to Perth being cancelled.

According to Reen, her group was going through final security checks for their 12.05am flight on Aug 2, when an AirAsia ground staff who scanned her ticket directed her to security.

An older woman in her 50s then took the passports of all six in the group, and asked them how much money they had brought for their trip.

Reen said they each had A$350 (RM993). She also brought along a credit card with a maximum limit of RM20,000.

It was later revealed that the woman was a plainclothes Australian immigration official, who was suspicious of the group's intentions and told them that they need to have at least A$1,000 (RM2,839) in hand each in order to be allowed entry. 

Commenting further, Samsuri said Reen and her friends had been "victims" of profiling and false assumptions.

"With the flick of the wrist by a certain Australian officer, their planned getaway was cancelled, leaving them dumbfounded and devastated at the airport.

"And all because they were the victims of false presumptions, resulting in a very ill situation," he said.

Reen's tweets had caught the attention of the Australian high commissioner to Malaysia Andrew Goledzinowski (photo). 

On Thursday, Goledzinowski said Malaysians are not being profiled by airline liaison officers (ALOs) stationed at airports to make sure travellers meet all entry requirements.

He added that 400,000 Malaysians visit Australia every year without facing any problems.

“But some come to work illegally or to overstay. Unfortunately, Malaysia is currently number one in this category,” read his tweet to Reen.

It was reported last month that Australian border authorities were refusing entry to up to 20 Malaysians per week up to February this year.

This followed allegations of an “orchestrated scam” by Malaysians to extend their stay in the country, including by arriving on electronic visitor visas and applying for protection visas once there.

Deputy Foreign Minister Marzuki Yahaya had told the Dewan Negara that Australia’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal received some 4,973 applications by Malaysians for refugee status, between July, 2018 and April, 2019.

Many of these applicants, he added, arrived in Australia on the pretext of being tourists.