Immigration Director-General Khairul Dzaimee Daud has announced that the autogates at international entry points throughout Malaysia have been reactivated once again on 5 March. This is apparently in preparation for the borders to be reopened, which Prime Minister Ismail Sabri as well as the Tourism and Culture Minister Nancy Shukri said would happen “soon”.
The use of these autogates was suspended during the start of the pandemic but was briefly activated last year, only to be shut down again due to the Omicron wave. The National Recovery Council previously suggested that the borders could reopen at the beginning of March, but that has not been materialised just yet as the timeline was not approved by the Cabinet.
We are pleased to inform that all immigration autogates for Malaysian passports at the departure and arrival of KLIA main terminal and klia2 terminal have now resumed normal operations starting today. Have a safe flight to your destination! 😄 #MYairportsshares #KLIA #klia2 pic.twitter.com/EQYElIreMQ
— Malaysia Airports (@MY_Airports) March 7, 2022
However, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin recently revealed that the Cabinet had finally given the green light on opening up the borders, the date of which will be announced by Ismail. “The announcement is crucial to allow some time for relevant businesses under the travel and tourism industry to prepare for the reopening,” said Khairy.
Aside from Singapore and Brunei, Malaysia is also preparing for the border reopening by implementing a vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) with Cambodia and Thailand to allow quarantine-free travel, while VTLs with several other countries are being negotiated.
(Source: Bernama, Straits Times, NST)
