Immigration staff demonstrating how the MARS Mirror works.
KUCHING: The State Immigration Department is the first government agency in the country to use the MARS mirror – an innovative product to ease the taking of photographs of children and toddlers by staff for processing their passports.
With the installation of this mirror, little children and toddlers aged three and below need not be carried by their mothers or guardians when posing for the camera.
Their photographs will be captured by the MARS mirror and this can be done easily even when the children and toddlers are lying down or in a sitting position.
Head of the product-producing team of Imisar Group, Haryani Salleh Baihaki said MARS mirror could drastically cut processing time at all passport issuing offices.
She was met at the launch of MARS mirror by Sarawak Federal Secretary Datuk Mansor Man in conjunction with the state-level Malaysian Immigration Day 2017, which was also attended by state Immigration director Ken Leben and assistant director Hamfatullah Syawal Hamdan.
Haryani said the idea of producing the mirror came up because some members of the public encountered difficulties in getting photographs of their children.
Some parents even resorted to having photographs of their children taken at private studios because it would be difficult to do so at the immigration offices, she added.
“The Immigration Department has agreed to install 70 MARS mirrors at all passport issuing offices throughout the nation. We will start distributing eight units this month – four in Sarawak and another four in Peninsular Malaysia,” she said.
In Sarawak, the first office to use the MARS mirror would be the Immigration office at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar here, she said, adding that the three other units would be installed at the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) here in Sibu and Miri.
The rest of the units will be distributed from next year to 70 Immigration offices, she added.
The mirror is priced at RM2,350 each.
Imisar has received awards at competitions including Sarawak Chief Minister’s Innovative Award in 2017.