Singapore to stop accepting Malaysian “group passport” hinh anh 1Passengers line up at an airport (Illustrative image: channelnewsasia)
 
Singapore (VNA) –  The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) will stop accepting the Malaysian Collective Travel Document (MCTD) from the start of next year, said the ICA on February 5.

Malaysians who travel to Singapore as a group by that time will have to use individual passports instead of group travel documents.

The MCTD is a travel document issued by Malaysia’s immigration department to groups of five to 20 Malaysians, substituting the use of individual passports.

Stopping the use of group document will strengthen the security and efficiency of immigration clearance at Singapore's checkpoints, said the ICA.

As ICA moves towards greater use of automation and multi-modal biometrics for clearance, the MCTD poses operational concerns as it requires manual data entry of all travellers’ details, resulting in longer clearance times.

According to the ICA, there was an average of 28,100 Malaysian group travel documents each year between 2017 and 2019, equivalent to about 140,500 MCTD travellers each year.

Malaysia is the only country that has a group travel document arrangement with Singapore. The ICA said it has informed its Malaysian counterpart of its plans to stop accepting the group travel document./.
VNA