Malaysians travelling to Thailand through lands borders will soon be able to do so more easily and efficiently as they will be exempted from having to fill out arrival and departure cards. This was announced by a spokesperson for the Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin after the premier had a meeting with prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Currently, Malaysians driving into Thailand are required to fill out form T.M.6 and they must keep it with them until they exit the country or else face a hefty fine by Thai immigration. However, the land of smiles ran a limited trial last that ran for six months until 30 April, where Malaysians crossing the border through the Sadao checkpoint in Songkhla were exempted from needing to fill the form.
This initiative was apparently successful as the country saw the number of Malaysian visitors triple from 10,000 to 30,000 during the weekends. Because of this, Thailand is planning on expanding to exemption to all its land borders with Malaysia.
The move makes sense as a breakdown of Thailand’s 2023 tourism statistics shows that of 28.09 million visitors for the year, Malaysians made up over 4.6 million of that figure. Coincidentally, Singapore also recently announced that Malaysians travelling through its land borders will soon be able to enter with just a QR code instead of having to hand over their passport.
(Source: NST)
