CIQs need overhaul
Two land checkpoints in Johor require major upgrades to cope with operations.
JOHOR BARU: The two land checkpoints between Malaysia and Singapore need a major overhaul, especially its infrastructure including gantries, speed breakers and CCTVs, say transport security sources.
Almost all the booths at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex and Kompleks Abu Bakar at the Second Link do not have cameras to monitor motorists and hundreds of Immigration staff at work there.
It is learnt that both the CIQs handled an average of 100,000 vehicles daily, including motorcycles, and that the lorry counters did not even have gantries or signages to inform the public that the lanes were closed.
Security sources said some of the 11 entry and exit lanes for lorries cannot be utilised due to design defects.
As such, some lorry drivers pass these without scanning their passports.
Besides the Immigration Department, the Customs Department is also facing problems.
It does not have adequate scanning machines at both the CIQs, resulting in bottlenecks.
The sources said the Customs scanners broke down often.
“All these are causing the long traffic lines.
“This issue of CIQ problems at both our land crossing needs to be resolved as soon as possible,” he said.
The sources hoped for more enforcement to curb smuggling.
Johor Immigration Department director Datuk Rohaizi Bahari admitted that there were challenges faced by his personnel at the CIQs.
“You cannot expect my men to stand outside the booths stopping every vehicle as this can be dangerous,” he said.
About 1,500 personnel are manning both CIQs connecting Singapore, he added.
A Customs official said: “We should have a proper border security agency similar to Singapore that can be a onestop agency as many government agencies are involved at the moment.”
Last month, Pan Malaysia Lorry Owners Association president Tan Boon Siong said some lorry drivers would just drive into Singapore without producing their passports as they were exasperated with the
You cannot expect my men to stand outside the booths stopping every vehicle as this can be dangerous. Datuk Rohaizi Bahari
long wait for Immigration clearance.
These drivers claimed that they often had to wait up to 30 minutes and that sometimes, they would even have to alight from their vehicles to look for Immigration officers if the booths were unmanned.