BiometricsMalaysia's biometric failure

A malfunction in Malaysia’s biometric fingerprint system at its international railway station could have major implications as other countries around the world expand the use of biometrics at ports of entry.

Last Saturday travelers were infuriated after they were forced to wait nearly an hour and a half to pass through Malaysia’s immigration checkpoints. As a result, many tourists had to change or cancel their holiday travel plans all together.

The delays were caused by a new biometric fingerprint scanning system that had just been installed four days prior to it malfunctioning. It was reported that each individual took as long as five minutes to pass through the system, five times longer than the Immigration Department’s original target of one minute per traveler.

A similar situation occurred at another immigration checkpoint where it took cars and buses roughly two and a half hours just to reach the checkpoint.

S. Karasima, who was travelling with a tour group on a one-day visit to Malacca, said his trip was cancelled and rerouted to another destination as a result of the delays.

“It is unreasonable to make us wait for so long for immigration clearance,” Karasima said.

Karsima added, “Do you have any idea how tiring it was to stand for almost two hours just to get through Immigration?”

The New Straits Times reports that an estimated 160 tour buses were affected by the delays at both checkpoints, impacting more than 6,000 tourists mostly from Singapore and Japan.

The delays came at the height of Malaysia’s tourist season, resulting in sharp criticism from the tourist industry.

Jimmy Leong, the president of the Malaysia Tour Guides Council, said, “I will be writing to the Prime Minister’s Department and Tourism Ministry to highlight the matter.”

He explained that he waited for nearly three and a half hours to get three buses through immigration.

“It normally takes about 20 minutes for each coach to pass through clearance at the SIB’s CIQ checkpoint. Today, it took about 90 minutes. This excludes the time loss for each coach to reach the complex from the Causeway,” Leong said.

Under the new biometric fingerprint system, which was implemented on 1 June, all foreigners entering and exiting Malaysia must have their left and right index fingers scanned at checkpoints. In the past visitors only needed to have their passports stamped by officials.

So far the new system has been implemented in ninety-six entry and exit ports across the country.

In response to the heavy criticism, Datuk Alias Ahmad, the director general of Malaysia’s Immigration Department, asked travelers to be patient with the new system.

Ahmad said that glitches were still being worked out of the system and that it took travellers took longer than expected to move through customs.

“For some people, it takes only a minute. For others, it takes about two to three minutes. We welcome feedback and will improve the system as soon as possible,” he said.