Thousands stranded at Malaysia’s borders after major tech glitch

Tens of thousands of travelers faced significant delays at all Malaysian entry points after the entire immigration system crashed due to a major glitch on May 28. Immigration officers resorted to manual processing for five hours, from 4:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., as all computer-based systems were down. This incident is the second major system failure in just over a month, following a similar disruption on April 23 that stranded thousands for approximately two hours.

Immigration Department director-general Zakaria Shaaban attributed the May 28 incident to technical issues at the Malaysian Immigration Systems (MyIMMs) data center, stating the system was back online after rectification work. He assured that the system was not hacked but acknowledged its age. "The MyIMMS system is already 30 years old. Problems are bound to happen," Shaaban said, adding that disruptions may recur until the new National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) is fully operational, which is expected by 2028.

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The MyIMMS system is already 30 years old. Problems are bound to happen.

The Home Ministry official noted that the disruption affected most of the nation's 114 checkpoints, with long queues reported at Johor's land checkpoints during peak hours as many Malaysians commuted to Singapore for work. Autogates and facial recognition systems were non-operational, requiring the redeployment of personnel to manual counters. The government is committed to minimizing technical disruptions in the new NIISe system, with the vendor instructed to prepare mitigation plans ahead of the Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link operations in 2027.

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We will endure them until the NIISe system is ready.