3,000 Malaysians affected by immigration foul-up

PETALING JAYA, June 17 — Some 3,000 Malaysians had their travels plans disrupted in recent months when security chips in their passports were found to be defective.

While authorities remain tight-lipped, a source told Malay Mail some travellers found themselves in a predicament at exit points while others were held up upon landing at airports abroad.

“Their passports were not readable by computer systems at airports here and overseas,” the source said.

“The flaw was detected in new passports issued by the Immigration Department over the past three months.

“The authorities, who have begun a probe into this situation, have not ruled out the possibility that this latest glitch is linked to the recent passport issue faced by the department.”

The debacle has hurt the image of the country, with foreign immigration authorities fuming over Malaysia’s failure to ensure passports passed electronic checks.

An expose by Malay Mail yesterday revealed immigration authorities were “struggling” to cope with passport applications due to an insufficient stock of new booklets.

A large number of the chips used in the passports were rejected, either by the government security printer or Immigration Department, for failing to meet security standards.

The shortage forced the department to be “lenient” with its normal standards, and issue lower quality passports such as those with minor defects.

The source said slight changes made to the new passports were another reason the documents could not be read when scanned at the airport’s eGates.

“When the eGates were unable to capture details in the chips, passport holders had to verify their identities with a second document.

“It is embarrassing for travellers when their passports are deemed invalid,” said the source.

After numerous alerts were raised in recent weeks both here and abroad, it was established that the problem was the security chip in the passport.

The source said incidents were reported in Thailand, Singapore and several European and middle-eastern countries.

“When that happened, passport holders were asked to produce other identification documents such as their Mykad, credit or ATM card for verification,” he said.