Malaysia says autogates ‘100%' restored after 2-day glitch, no indication of sabotage
Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain added that there is no indication of sabotage yet, even as investigations into the recent breakdown are ongoing.
'At this point, we do not see any indication of sabotage. For now, I do not wish to make any assumptions that could worsen the situation,' he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.
'Let us do our work and determine what actually happened.'
Shuhaily added that the 'system glitch' was due to connectivity issues between the MyIMMS system and the international security system it is linked to, which then caused delays and long queues.
The Star reported Shuhaily as saying that the two-day breakdown affected over 380,000 travellers at Johor Bahru's Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (BSI CIQ).
"As we speak, everything is already up and running - 100 per cent. We deeply regret that this incident occurred,' he was quoted as saying by The Star at a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal One.
The Star had earlier reported that tens of thousands of foreigners were affected, involving more than 200 autogates across the country.
Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminals One and Two, as well as Johor Bahru's BSI CIQ at the Causeway and the Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ at the Second Link were among the entry points affected.
However, Malaysian passport holders were able to use the autogates with no issues. Affected travellers then shared photos of the long queues at both land checkpoints with Singapore on social media.
The border agency then said that the autogate service has partially resumed since 6pm on Saturday.
Separately, Johor's Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi lashed out over the matter on Saturday, and urged the federal authorities to act immediately to prevent a recurrence of the system disruption at Johor's land checkpoints.
'Such weaknesses not only inconvenience the public but may also tarnish the image of the state and nation, especially as this is one of the busiest entry points in the region' he wrote in a post on Facebook, referring to Johor Bahru's BSI CIQ.
Since Jun 1 last year, visitors from 63 countries and regions have been able to use Malaysia's autogate facilities for immigration clearance. These include travellers from Singapore, Japan and Australia.
There are currently 1,568 automatic passport scanning machines at Malaysia's checkpoints, according to the Malay Mail.
Previously, hundreds of travellers were stranded for several hours last December after the autogate and QR code scanning system at the BSI suffered a malfunction.
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