KUALA LUMPUR: Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing hits out at Immigration Department for slow checking procedures at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for incoming travelers.
Following complaints, he went to see for himself and found out that some of the travelers were 'welcomed' with up to two hours wait for the sake of the checks resulting in long beeline at the Immigration counters.
He said that the lack of manpower at the international entry point is not a new issue, hence he called on the Home Ministry to resolve the woes.
"If Malaysia wants to welcome tourists and make the country a competitive destination of choice, we need to solve this problem as soon as possible, to avoid the image of the Immigration Department being tarnished.
"The arrival of tourists to this country who are 'welcomed' by having to queue for two hours for immigration inspection, is very absurd," he said in a statement today.
He said that the delays happening at the Immigration counter shows the outdated existing inspection procedure.
The average processing time of two to three minutes per passenger is not efficient, he said, compared to only 30 seconds at other airports.
He said that the Home Ministry must act by placing qualified officers who can handle related procedures quickly.
He also urged the KLIA authorities to deploy staff with multilingual skills to help facilitate tourists when going through immigration inspection procedures.
"The facial recognition system used by the Immigration Department should also be extended to all international visitors, not just limited to those with long-term passes to facilitate the clearance process," he added.