Malaysia has revoked its visa on arrival facility for Indian citizens.

The visa privilege was scrapped permanently by Malaysia's deputy prime minister, Muhyideein Yassin, who said 40,000 visitors from India had abused the facility.

He said the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants had felt the need to revoke the process, which meant flexibility was given to several nations whose citizens would be issued visas at the entry point.

He said: "We noticed that this was being abused. The cabinet committee agreed that the VOA facility be revoked or discontinued."

Cases of Indians abusing the scheme topped the list of unauthorised immigrants from eight South Asian nations, including China, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Taiwan and Comoros.

Last January, prior to a visit to India, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak also expressed concern over the "disappearance" of citizens from India who had entered the country through the visa on arrival facility.

Multi-ethnic Malaysia is home to 1.7 million ethnic Indians. Many of whom have been denied the Mykad, the national identity card.