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JOHOR BAHRU \u2013 Tens of thousands of foreigners are stuck in long queues at Malaysia\u2019s two land checkpoints with Singapore following a major technical glitch, which knocked out most of the immigration autogates on Jan 10.<\/p>\n
The worst affected is the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs Immigration and Quarantine Complex (BSI), where foreigners have been forced to wait up to two hours to clear immigration.<\/p>\n
It was learnt that at least 39 autogates at the entry and 29 machines at the exit areas of the bus halls at BSI had experienced problems for a few days, but the system crashed totally on Jan 10 due to the huge influx of foreigners during the weekend.<\/p>\n
The Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar (KSAB) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex (KSAB) has 12 autogates.<\/p>\n
Malaysians using their local passports are still able to use the autogates, while the system for motorcycles and cars was also functioning properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the autogates at the KTM train station at BSI were knocked off-line,\u201d a security official said, adding that efforts were being made to restore the system in stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first major disruption this year, and the timing is bad especially when we are getting a lot of foreign visitors in conjunction with <\/p>\n Visit Malaysia<\/p>\n <\/a> and Visit Johor 2026,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n The official added that the Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS) has been directed to open up all the manual counters to handle the influx of people.<\/p>\n The official said so far, the situation at KSAB was still manageable.<\/p>\n Facebook user Joy Ce said that it took about three hours to get her passport stamped.<\/p>\n