Urgent help: Friends detained at JB because customs officers didn’t stamp their passports
Would really appreciate everyone’s advice on what to do.
For context, I went with a group of friends on a short 3D2N trip to JB. Most of our friend group went on Friday morning by bus, but 2 friends rented a car and joined later that evening. These 2 friends cleared the Woodlands checkpoint but ran into some issues with their Touch n Go card at the JB checkpoint (it was their first time travelling into Malaysia by car). The officer held onto their passports and directed them to sort it out at some kind of toll office, and when they finished up and came back, they didn’t check whether their passports were stamped. While they obviously should have checked, I believe that this genuinely slipped their mind amidst the chaos and confusion.
Earlier today we were returning to SG in the same rented car. The officers noticed that 2 passports lacked a stamp and took us for questioning. Imo, they were very hostile and intimidating – for example one of them would walk over to a wooden board where they had printed out and pinned the relevant statute stipulating the maximum penalties etc, and made a big show of reading it. They also pulled one of us (who was a Malaysian aside) and kept communicating in Malay while not really explaining the situation to the rest of us, and repeatedly emphasized the gravity of the offence, the 14 day maximum detention period etc. They seemed very insistent on detaining my friends, even though my friends tried very hard to explain their case and even offered proof of entry via the causeway on their driver’s app etc.
So currently, my 2 friends are being detained there and are uncontactable. The rest of us headed back to SG via bus and have notified their family and friends. We’ve tried calling a few lines eg the High Commission but this all happened after office hours so we couldn’t get a hold of most of them.
I’m worried sick for my friends especially as I’m unfamiliar with the conditions of the detention center and how they’re being treated. Would really appreciate advice/sharings by anyone who’s encountered similar situations.