JB immigration officer allegedly asked S$50 from S'porean woman without arrival stamp in passport

Always check your passports.

Mandy How | June 27, 2019, 07:19 PM

On June 26, a Malaysian woman known as Giselle Kyau wrote a lengthy Facebook post on her experience with a Johor Bahru (JB) immigration officer.

Kyau was travelling with a Singaporean friend, and both of them were leaving Malaysia for Singapore when the incident occurred.

In her post, she alleged that the officer on the Malaysia side had asked her Singaporean friend for S$50 while they were departing for Singapore.

This was because the Singaporean friend didn't have an arrival stamp in her passport when she previously entered the country.

Kyau also implied that the same officer appeared adept at what he did.

Kyau didn't need a stamp as she was Malaysian, but her Singaporean friend needed one.

Here's her post, translated from Chinese:

"Wouldn't believe it if I didn't witness it myself. Malaysia still has "ghosts"!! This is to share my experience, and to gently remind everyone that they must, must, check their passports before leaving the customs.

My friend and I drove from Tuas to JB today, and failed to check if our passports were stamped. In the end, it became a "big matter" when we were departing from JB CIQ (to Singapore). The immigration officer asked us to his office as the passport wasn't stamped.

The officer then questioned calmly, almost like he had done it before, why the passport didn't have a stamp. I asked in return, why doesn't he check with his colleagues instead? There should be a record of the scan right?

Ok! Turns out that there was no scan after a quick check on the computer!! I then said, since my friend came with me, we can find out which officer didn't chop her passport by checking my passport's scan.

He said no need, he trusts me leh! On what basis? I wonder why he didn't want to find out what had happened? Why didn't he want to check which colleague had neglected their duties?

Subsequently, the officer gave us two choices:

  1. We call the police, and spend RM2 (S$0.60) and our time on it (he later changed the sum to RM100 (S$33))
  2. Simply put, paying money to settle the matter. He asked for RM150 (S$50) in a very direct manner.

For a Malaysian like me to witness such greed and corruption from someone wearing a uniform, taking the taxpayers salaries!

I apologise to my Singaporean friend as a Malaysian, and am ashamed over this incident!

The Malaysian officer was doing it on purpose, 100 per cent."

The post did not include any response from Malaysia customs.

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Top image via Walter Lim/Flickr and Ginelle Kyau on Facebook