Travellers going to Johor Bahru by bus or on foot in the morning and early afternoon of Mar. 9 were subjected to long queues in the Sultan Iskandar Building CIQ Complex.

Large crowds at arrival hall

The Sultan Iskandar Building Immigration Office's Facebook page posted an update at around 1pm on Mar. 9, showing a large crowd gathered in the CIQ complex's arrival hall, with several lines of people leading to a large crowd.

Towards the bottom of the scene, a section of the hall can be seen to be cordoned off.

Although the post did not say what caused the queue, or why the section had been cordoned off, some on social media claimed it was because the automatic immigration gates, available to Malaysians and registered Singaporeans, had failed.

If true, this meant that those crossing the causeway by bus or on foot would have to use the manned immigration counters, causing delays.

Overflowing crowds

A post at around 1:30pm showed people waiting to enter the building, with lines stretching to the outside of the CIQ building.

Another post at around 4pm showed that the situation remained congested, with travellers being made to wait before entering the main immigration arrival hall.

A reply shared at 5pm showed that the queues remained very long, and the lanes for the automatic gates were still corderend off.

A post at 11am by the Sultan Iskandar Building's communications team gave an update on the situation, saying there was congestion at the passenger arrival zone, but not at other areas.

This comes at an unfortunate time, at the start of the March school holidays.

One traveller took to social media to post about their frustration, tagging Johor Menteri Besar (chief minister) Onn Hafiz Ghazi.

Welcome everyone yet again to the Immigration Olympics of JB customs.

I’m tired la. Yet again, the problem persists at Malaysia. The same crowd in Singapore - no problems whatsoever.

Ugh. @onnhafiz what’s going on? You know it’s school holiday season right? pic.twitter.com/vr4i4PGXXw

— Ur Mader green (@jowellnaidu) March 9, 2024

Onn Hafiz has become a fixture at the Johor CIQ building, regularly making inspection tours in a bid to fix the constant backlog of queues and travellers on the Causeway.

Ironically, his last major intervention was to instruct the Johor CIQ staff to delay upgrading of e-gates and immigration counters until after the December 2023 school holidays.

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Top image via Unit Komunikasi dan Korporat Pejabat Imigresen Bangunan Sultan Iskandar/Facebook & Malaysia-Singapore Border Crossers(MSBC) 马新过境者/Facebook