'Can't believe we endured this': Woman stuck in 5-hour-long queue at JB customs

Ever since the borders reopened some four months ago, the Causeway has seen a flurry of activity, just like how things were during pre-pandemic days. 

And while many are thrilled to reunite with family or carry out their day trips, one issue has resumed as well: The dreadful long queues. 

For traveller Mitsueki Ademaro, she encountered an especially bad human jam over the weekend at the Malaysian Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex, queuing for well over five hours to clear customs. 

She documented her experience in a TikTok video that was uploaded on Saturday (Aug 27), which as of the time of writing, has over 352,000 views and 510 comments. 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@mitsueki/video/7136489822117481730?_r=1&%3B_t=8VCCanD2wEL&%3Bis_from_webapp=v1&%3Bitem_id=71364[/embed]

Calling it the "longest immigration queue ever", Ademaro said she reached CIQ at about 11.50 am. 

Clips of the crowd situation showed throngs of people queueing up to get their passports stamped at the immigration counters. 

In an update at the third-hour mark, the exasperated Ademaro could be seen sitting on the floor while still queuing. 

She shared that she and her travel companions were so hungry that they resorted to eating biscuits and snacks "picnic-style" during the wait. 

"I could even read a book," she said.  

The final clip showed an equally bad queue situation at around 4 pm and eventually at 5 pm, Ademaro finally cleared customs and entered JB. 

"I can't believe we endured this," she said in the video captions. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Ademaro for her comments. 

In the comments section, some netizens expressed their shock at the long queues, with one even saying that you could fly to Hong Kong during that period of time. FYI, it takes about four hours to fly from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Others shared their personal experiences at the customs and some said that the queues the week before were no better, with one claiming that they queued for seven hours to clear customs, from 8.30 am to 3.30 pm. 

Ademaro isn't the only one who had issues crossing the border this weekend.

TikTok user Qtmin1308 shared that she had issues returning to Singapore on Sunday (Aug 28). 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@qtmin1308/video/7136905952028069122?_r=1&_t=8VEZ87IfLPd&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7136905952028069122[/embed]

The video showed her standing at the back of the immigration counter hall as she panned her camera to show lines of people queueing to get their passports stamped. 

"Can't come home," she wrote in Chinese.

The immigration counters weren't the only place that had a human jam. 

Another TikTok user Maxx_kumar on Friday (Aug 26) showed a video of the bus bay packed with travellers.

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@maxx_kumar/video/7136207356567899393?_r=1&_t=8VEZ44eJjgv&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7136207356567899393[/embed]

This isn't the only time the borders have seen such abysmal queues.

Back in April, during the Good Friday long weekend, there were snaking queues of people over at Woodlands Checkpoint.

The police were even deployed to direct people.

Apart from human jams, there are car jams too. 

In June, one driver got stuck in an especially bad one and he took a good seven hours to clear two land checkpoints before making it home.

While he was stuck at the Second Link for three hours, he even had time to eat some putu mayam on the car's bonnet with his friend. 

He also helped to direct traffic for a few hours. 

ALSO READ: Woman blocks MPV while queuing at Malaysia checkpoint, throws car licence plate

melissateo@asiaone.com