Johor Bahru, Malaysia – The number of immigration counters at the custom, immigration and quarantine complex at the Sultan Iskandar Building will be increased from 25 to 40.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said this would facilitate the movement of the arrival and departure of Malaysians and Singaporeans using the Causeway thus easing the congestion problem.
“In today’s visit, I checked on several projects that have been approved by the Special Committee on the Causeway Congestion that were delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This includes the construction of the covered walkway at the Causeway, which will be expedited. We have also agreed to increase the number of immigration counters from 25 to 40 so that when the border fully opens, the facilities will be ready.
“This is important because when the border opens, some 400,000 Malaysians will be using the Causeway to commute to Singapore for work,” said Hamzah.
He added that the work to have more counters would be carried out in stages soon.
Hamzah also said that all checkpoints in Malaysia would be equipped with an immigration system that will incorporate facial recognition and biometric systems by 2023.
He said this was important in order to monitor the movement of foreigners entering and exiting the country.
“The system will also be able to identify those who have been blacklisted from entering the country and those who overstay.”
He said the new system called the National Integrated Immigration System was being developed to replace the Malaysian Immigration System which had weaknesses, including its inability to track the movement of foreigners in and out of the country.
