JOHOR BARU, May 5 — The Immigration Department will soon implement a new system to address its manpower needs at Johor’s two land border crossings to ensure that all counters are operational without delays.
Immigration Director-General Datuk Ruslin Juso said a new shift management system will be among the main changes for the immigration counters in Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) here and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar (KSAB) in Gelang Patah.
He said that the implementation of the new system will ensure no congestion and delays during peak hours and will solve the lack of staff at the counters due to the change of shift.
“The issue arising at the two land checkpoints involving the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex at BSI (Johor Causeway) and the KSAB at Gelang Patah was due to the change of shift involving Immigration Department staff at 7am.
“The matter was raised by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi after he made several visits to the Immigration Department.
“With that, the Immigration Department looked into a new formula for the 7am shifts, including introducing a new system for the shifts to be changed outside of the peak hours period.
“Hopefully the new system will be announced by next week,” Ruslin told reporters after inspecting the BSI CIQ’s operations here this morning.
Earlier, Ruslin explained that the current 7am change of shift was not ideal as it is a critical time and involves the peak period at both land border crossings that start from 5am to 8am.
“So, any change of shift during the peak period will affect the ability of the counters to remain operational, thus causing delays and congestion,” he said.
On a related matter, Ruslin said the BSI’s CIQ is currently understaffed and has a shortage of almost 300 Immigration Department staff in order to maximise all 284 counters during the peak period.
He said the department currently has 1,074 staff stationed at the BSI CIQ, where the actual requirement was for 1,347 staff.
However, Ruslin said the department will place an additional 100 new staff at the BSI CIQ by the end of May.
He said this immediate allocation of new staff was from the total of 231 Immigration Department recruits who will complete their training on May 20.
