A photo said to be of the queue that formed at Woodlands Checkpoint today after autogate facilities went down for foreign passport holders wishing to enter Malaysia via Johor Bahru. — Picture via Facebook
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Saturday, 19 Jul 2025 2:37 PM MYT
JOHOR BAHRU, July 19 — Tens of thousands of foreign visitors have reportedly found themselves unable to use autogate facilities at major entry points to Malaysia.
The Star reported that long queues have formed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s Terminal 1 and 2, and Johor Bahru’s Sultan Iskandar and Sultan Abu Bakar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine centres.
“Weekends are a busy period and Immigration officers have been told to open all lanes to clear the passports manually,” an unnamed official at the Sultan Iskandar complex was quoted by the paper.
In a statement put out at 12pm today, the Sultan Iskandar building border control confirmed that the autogates were currently only usable by Malaysian passport holders and they are currently working on fixing the issue.
No other details were mentioned.
The disruption reportedly started around noon yesterday, affecting 200 autogates nationwide.
Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the failure and are investigating possible sabotage or hacking.
A sign alerts travellers to a system disruption at the Sultan Iskandar Building’s autogate facilities in Johor Bahru today. — Picture via Facebook/Agensi Kawalan dan Perlindungan Sempadan BSI
The biggest disruptions happened at the two centres in Johor Bahru, which receives influx of Singaporean visitors on a regular basis — especially on weekend.
People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) personnel were deployed to help manage the crowds at the two land checkpoints with Singapore, while Immigration Department officers initiated contra lanes at both bus halls to speed up processing.
Efforts were still ongoing to restore the nationwide system, at the time of writing.
Since June 2024, autogate access has been extended to visitors from 63 countries, as well as diplomats and their family members.
Malaysia has since deployed the QR code system at major entry points starting January this year to cut down on waiting time for foreign visitors.