JOHOR: Malaysia has established a special task force to deal with any potential travel disruptions at the Johor-Singapore border crossings on Jul 11 as Johoreans return to vote in the southern state’s legislature election, says its home minister.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday (Jun 27) in Johor, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said travel at the Singapore-Johor border crossings continue to face a “possibility of disruptions” as the country rolls out a new immigration system.
But he stressed that the ministry’s “highest priority” was to ensure no disruptions on the Jul 11 polling day, with his ministry’s task force on hand to handle any that might occur.
“Naturally, we hope they will not. Nevertheless, if they do, we have prepared contingency plans, including Plan A and Plan B. Those are the instructions I have given to the ministry,” he said, without elaborating on the measures.
The home ministry also plans to provide “dedicated lanes” at the immigration checkpoints for Malaysian voters residing in Singapore, said Saifuddin, speaking on the sidelines of nomination proceedings.
“We will make every effort, where necessary, including providing dedicated lanes to facilitate Malaysian voters residing in Singapore so that they can return home and fulfil their civic responsibility,” he told reporters.
Saifuddin was responding to questions on whether there will be special arrangements at the two Singapore-Malaysia border crossings – the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) customs, immigration and quarantine complex linked to the Woodlands Causeway and Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ (KSAB) linked to Tuas Second Link.
He also said there could still be “occasional hiccups” as the country prepares for a new immigration system rollout.
The home minister was referring to the transition from the Malaysian Immigration System (MyIMMs), the immigration department’s digital system, to the National Integrated Immigration System (MyNIISe) which is aimed at improving reliability and handling higher passenger volumes crossing the border.
He added that the implementation is currently in its final phase, as local media previously reported that the MyNIISE system will be fully implemented in September.
Last month, tens of thousands of travellers faced long queues at immigration checkpoints across Malaysia, including at the Johor-Singapore land border as a nationwide system outage crippled immigration clearance for about five hours.
The disruption marks the second major immigration system crash in just over a month. A similar incident left thousands of travellers stranded for about two hours on Apr 23.
In 2022, local media estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 Johoreans are working in neighbouring Singapore. The Johor electorate numbers at around 2.7 million.