JOHOR BAHRU, Jan 10 — Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi has rejected claims that as many as 10,000 foreign travellers were stranded for hours at the Johor–Singapore land checkpoints today, saying closed-circuit television footage showed conditions at both border complexes remained under control.
Speaking to the New Straits Times (NST), Onn Hafiz said the state government reviewed live and recorded CCTV feeds at Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar (KSAB) after reports by Singapore authorities and a local English daily alleged that tens of thousands of travellers were trapped following a system failure.
“Based on CCTV monitoring, there was no situation involving 10,000 people being stranded. The situation was controlled and did not pose any safety or security concerns,” Onn Hafiz told NST.
He acknowledged that a technical glitch affected foreign passport autogates at both BSI and KSAB, but said the disruption was limited and did not paralyse border movements.
Autogates for Malaysian passport holders continued operating normally, while immigration clearance for motorcycles, private vehicles and manual counters was unaffected, allowing travellers to move through alternative channels.
Onn Hafiz said conditions at the inbound bus hall at BSI remained under control, with no critical congestion reported, although some foreign travellers experienced longer waiting times.
Recovery works were carried out progressively once the root cause was identified, involving the Immigration Department, the Border Control and Protection Agency, the Southern Integrated Transport Terminal operator and the system vendor, he said.
Foreign visitors were advised to use manual counters or the MyNIIS application to avoid delays at foreign passport autogates.
However, queues persisted as some travellers continued waiting at the e-gates despite repeated instructions to switch to alternative channels, contributing to longer delays.
Earlier online reports claimed tens of thousands of foreigners were stranded for several hours, particularly at BSI, which operates 39 autogates at entry points and 29 at exits in the bus halls. KSAB has 12 autogates.
BSI is among the world’s busiest land checkpoints, processing nearly half a million travellers daily, with volumes surging sharply on weekends and public holidays due to heavy cross-border commuting and tourism traffic.
