Tourism Ministry wants more Immigration personnel at KLIA

KUALA LUMPUR: The Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry calls for an increase in the number of Immigration counter staff and the ramping up of the use of facial recognition technology to improve immigration screening procedures at KL International Airport (KLIA).

Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said this was important to overcome the problem of long waiting times following the increasing number of tourists coming into Malaysia.

"The facial recognition system used by the Immigration Department should be extended to all international visitors and not limited to those holding long-term permits, to facilitate the clearance process.

"If Malaysia wants to welcome tourists and make the country among the most preferred destinations, we need to solve this problem immediately," he said in a statement here Monday (Jan 23).

According to the statement, Tiong, on checking out the tourist arrival process at KLIA, found that tourists had to queue and were made to wait, some for almost two hours for the immigration check-in process.

In addition, he also proposed that KLIA authorities consider stationing multilingual staff to make it easier for tourists when going through the inspection procedures. - Bernama