'Fire caused e-gate facilities to malfunction': Johor chief minister visits CIQ after reports of massive jam for days

Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi made a trip to the customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) complex in the southern Malaysian state following reports of massive congestion in the two border crossings to Singapore.

In a Facebook post on March 9, he said the jams at the CIQ complexes in Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) and Komplex Sultan Abu Bakar (KSAB) were due to glitches in the automated immigration clearance M-Bike system for motorcyclists at Malaysia's entry and exit points.

The problem was further compounded by a fire, which affected a computer server, causing the electronic gate (e-gate) facilities to malfunction, he said.

"As a result, immigration officers have to be deployed to the manual M-bike counters, causing the car counters to be short of manpower," he said.

Onn Hafiz added he had contacted Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to discuss the problems.

"God willing, the issues at both CIQ BSI and KSAB will be resolved soon," he added.

Commuters have been experiencing hours-long congestion at Malaysia's two land entry points for days.

The New Straits Times reported on March 6 that motorcyclists had to wait for hours to clear Malaysia's immigration and there were extensive queues at both BSI and KSAB due to a glitch to the M-bike system.

Immigration director-general Ruslin Jusoh told the newspaper that the disruption was caused by system configuration work being rolled out by a newly appointed company on Feb 29.

Earlier on March 9, commuters took to social media to complain about the breakdown of e-gates and update one another about the waiting time to clear immigration.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.