Tens of thousands delayed at Malaysia immigration checkpoints after five-hour system crash
Thursday’s disruption follows a similar incident on Apr 23. An official said “problems are bound to happen” with the decades-old Malaysian Immigration Systems (MyIMMs), which will be replaced by 2028.
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JOHOR BAHRU: Tens of thousands of travellers faced long queues at immigration checkpoints across Malaysia on early Thursday (May 28), including at the Johor-Singapore land border, when a nationwide system outage crippled immigration clearance for around five hours.
Immigration officers were left to process both Malaysians and foreign travellers manually after all computer-based systems went down between 4.30am and 9.30am, reported local news outlet The Star.
A home ministry official told The Star that long queues were reported at both Johor land checkpoints - the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) customs, immigration and quarantine complex linked to the Woodlands Causeway and Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ (KSAB) linked to the Tuas Second Link - describing it as a “peak time” for tens of thousands of Malaysians rushing to Singapore for work.
“We had to redeploy all our personnel to man manual counters at the bus halls, motorcycle and vehicles lanes,” said the official.
“Not only were our autogates down, even our facial recognition systems were also out.”
The disruption marks the second major immigration system crash in just over a month. A similar incident left thousands of travellers stranded for about two hours on Apr 23.
The outage on Thursday morning affected most of Malaysia’s 114 immigration checkpoints nationwide, prompting the deployment of additional security personnel to maintain order, the official added.
Malaysia has a total of 56 entry points via sea, 30 via land and 28 airports.
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While many travellers said the disruption began from 4.30am, immigration department director-general Zakaria Shaaban said the incident happened at about 5am and lasted until 8.45am due to technical issues with the Malaysian Immigration Systems (MyIMMs) data centre.
“The system was back online after rectifying work was carried out. The system was not hacked … The MyIMMs system is already 30 years old. Problems are bound to happen,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.
The system is expected to be replaced by the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) by 2028. This new digital immigration platform, designed to modernise border control, will aim to integrate passport verification, visa checks and traveller data into a single platform.
According to Zakaria, such disruptions may recur until the NIISe system is fully operational.
“We will endure until the NIISe system is ready,” he said, as quoted by local media.
Earlier this month, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said during a visit to Johor that the vendor of NIISe had been instructed to prepare mitigation plans ahead of the start of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link operations next year.
The Malaysian government is committed to minimising any form of technical disruption in the new system, he said.
The incident on Thursday morning had left many travellers frustrated, with some claiming that it caused them to be late for work.
Photos and videos showing congestion and large crowds at the immigration checkpoints, as well as heavy traffic at border crossings, were also widely circulated on social media and through news reports.
Malaysian commuter M Satish, who travels to Singapore by motorcycle for work, said he arrived at the KSAB checkpoint at around 7.30am to a chaotic scene.
The 35-year-old health, safety and environment officer told The Star that it took almost 40 minutes to clear immigration when it would usually take less than 10 minutes.
“Had I not left home earlier in the morning, I would have been late for work. The outage also worsened traffic congestion,” Satish was quoted as saying by The Star.
“Such outages cause uncertainty and delays especially for those heading to Singapore for work … I hope the relevant agencies can prevent such problems from happening again.”
Another Malaysian working in Singapore, Soh Qiao Shi, said she spent more than 30 minutes clearing immigration at the BSI checkpoint for a process that normally takes only five minutes.
“Neither the QR code scanners nor the automated passport clearance gates were working when I arrived at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) … Only the manual counters were operational, forcing everyone to line up and wait for immigration officers to process their passports,” the 28-year-old accountant told The Star.
“It was very frustrating, especially since it was so hot and crowded,” she said, noting that this had happened several times this year.
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