By SINGAPORE— Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Friday (31 Mar) has earlier warned travellers of “system slowness” at selected passenger clearance checkpoints, causing delays on Friday afternoon.
The ICA also advised travellers to postpone non-essential travel where applicable and apologized for the inconvenience caused.
The system disruption has also affected the auto-lanes for departing and arriving passengers across all terminals at Changi Airport, according to a separate post on Facebook by the airport.
In an update issued around 2 pm, ICA said they had recalled off-duty officers to provide additional support to manage the situation and to ensure law and order.
“As all departure automated lanes at all terminals at Changi Airport are affected, travellers are being redirected to the manual lanes for immigration clearance. Selected automated lanes at Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints are also affected.”
It was noted that immigration clearance at coastal checkpoints remained unaffected by the disruption.
At precisely 3:44 pm, ICA made an official announcement on their Facebook page, stating that immigration clearance at all checkpoints has resumed normalcy.
However, the automated motorcycle lanes at Tuas Checkpoint remain an exception to this.
“ICA regrets the inconvenience caused to travellers who have taken a longer time to clear immigration. ”
ICA said they are investigating to establish the root cause of the system issue.