Thousands including S'poreans stranded at Johor land checkpoints after immigration autogates crash on Jan. 10, 2026

Thousands of commuters were stranded in long queues at Malaysia's two land checkpoints with Singapore after a major technical glitch knocked out most of the immigration autogates on Jan. 10, 2026.

The Star reported that the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs Immigration and Quarantine Complex (BSI) in Johor Bahru is the worst affected, and foreigners had to wait up to two hours to clear immigration.

At least 39 autogates at the entry and 29 machines at the exit areas of the bus halls had been experiencing problems for a few days, The Star reported.

They then completely crashed on Jan. 10 due to the huge influx of foreigners during the weekend.

Long queues

According to videos and pictures posted on Facebook, commuters were packed closely together behind the gates, with the queues barely moving.

One post showed massive crowds at 10:41am on Jan. 10, with the caption speculating if there was any special occasion and hoping that the return journey would be less crowded.

According to another post, the user noted they were still quite a distance from the immigration gates despite queuing from 11:35am to 12:20pm.

Major disruption

A security official said that even the autogates at the KTM train station at BSI were knocked offline.

He added that efforts were being made to restore the system in stages, noting that this is the "first major disruption this year", and the "timing is bad" due to the higher traffic in conjunction with Visit Malaysia and Visit Johor 2026.

The Star reported that the Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar (KSAB) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex has 12 autogates, and the situation there thus far is manageable.

Malaysians using their local passports were still able to use the autogates and the system for motorcycles and cars was also functioning properly.

Top photos via Both Checkpoint/Facebook