KOTA TINGGI: The disembarkation card, a vital tool to record and gather data on the flow of people entering or leaving the country, will be implemented as scheduled on Aug 15, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar yesterday.

He said many visitors were surprised that Malaysia did not already have such a monitoring system in place, which was a common practice around the world.

"The immigration records contain vital information and could be of great use for security and other applications," he said after opening the Kota Tinggi Civil Defence Unit at Felda Air Tawar 3 here.

He said the forms, popularly known as "white cards", were meant to be filled by all foreigners and would not cause longer queues at immigration points.

"It is not targeted at Singaporeans. In fact, all foreigners will be required to fill in the forms come Aug 15, regardless of their entry point."
Syed Hamid said the use of the "white card" was stopped earlier this year to fine tune the system and not because of a policy change.

"The exemption from filling the forms given to all foreigners since Jan 20 was because we needed time to fine tune the system according to the findings of our study."

Syed Hamid said a simpler "white card" that is easier to fill up would be introduced.

"It would not cause any long queues. For those who come by plane, the form can be filled during the flight and handed over along with the passport at the immigration counters."