Travellers say they waited up to 3 hours for immigration clearance at KLIA

 

Travellers arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) waited between one and three hours to go through immigration clearance this afternoon. -NSTP file pic

KUALA LUMPUR: Travellers arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) waited between one and three hours to go through immigration clearance this afternoon.

Many of the tourists who were waiting in the long lines said they became irritated with the delays, which they felt could have been avoided.

A tourist arriving for a holiday from Jakarta, who only wanted to be known as Shivani, said she spent one-and-a-half hours lining up to get her passport stamped by immigration officers.

"The queue today is simply crazy."

"I landed at KLIA at about 3.30pm and by the time I cleared immigration it was past 5pm.

"I don't understand what's taking them so long to simply verify and stamp the passports," she said.

Another traveller, who only wanted to be known as Leon, also reached out to the New Straits Times to complain about the three-hour wait he endured at the airport today.

"The congestion is really bad. My family and I arrived from Jakarta on the 3.30pm flight and we decided to grab some food before we approached immigration.

"And to my surprise, the immigration counters were jam-packed," he said, adding he only left the immigration counters at almost 7pm.

The NST reached out to the Immigration Department for clarification.

A spokesman from the department said the situation has been occurring at the airport for the past few months.

He attributed the long queues to those returning from the umrah pilgrimage as they mostly travelled in big groups of 150 to 300 people.

"In the afternoon today, the congestion was slightly worse because we had two big groups of pilgrims. One was 200 pax and another was 400, so that slowed down the operations at the immigration counters,."

He also confirmed that all the immigration counters were opened.

The counters comprised 26 that were designated for foreign travellers arriving into the country and another six to 10 counters specially designated for Malaysians and those with special needs.

"Our autogates are also opened for Malaysians to pass through, but that too takes nothing less than a minute to verify and clear a traveller. The Quick Response Team is also on the ground to make sure things are under control at arrival."

He admitted that such a situation was not something new at the immigration arrival hall at KLIA. - NST