5-hour human & vehicular jam at M’sia checkpoints due to immigration system glitch on May 28

Tens of thousands of people were stuck at immigration checkpoints in Malaysia after its immigration system crashed following a major technical glitch on May 28.

According to a home ministry official, the disruption affected most of the 114 checkpoints across Malaysia, The Star reported.

Computer immigration systems were down on Thursday for about five hours from 4:30am to 9:30am.

Autogates and facial recognition systems were also down.

Immigration officers had to clear locals and foreigners manually during that period.

In videos and photos circulating online, long queues were seen at immigration checkpoints, and many complained that they had been stuck since 4:30am.

Problems are bound to happen

According to immigration department director-general Zakaria Shaa­ban, the incident occurred from about 5am to 8:45am.

This was due to technical issues at the Malaysian Immig­ration Systems (MyIMMs) data centre.

“The system was back online after rectifying work was carried out,” Zakaria said.

He also claimed the system was not hacked.

“The MyIMMs system is already 30 years old. Problems are bound to happen,” he added.

Peak time

Long queues were reported at both land checkpoints in Johor, as it was “peak time” for Malaysians rushing to Singapore for work.

Immigration personnel were redeployed to operate manual counters at the bus halls, motorcycle and vehicle lanes.

Additional security personnel were also deployed to maintain order at the checkpoints.

New system

A new immigration system, the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) is expected to replace MyIMMs by 2028.

Zakaria warned that such disruptions may recur.

“We will endure them until the NIISe system is ready,” he said.

In May 2026, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the vendor of NIISe had been told to prepare mitigation plans ahead of the start of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link operations in 2027.

Ismail added that the Malaysia government is committed to minimising technical disruptions with NIISe.

Second major crash in just over a month

This was the second major crash in just over a month.

On Apr. 23, a similar disruption left thousands stranded for about two hours.