KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — The Immigration Department has been instructed to conduct an investigation into allegations that an immigration officer was publicly admonished by a senior government official at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) today, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.

Hamzah said he had called Immigration Department director-general Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud to carry out the investigation in order to get a clearer picture of the actual incident.

"Even though things have gone viral, we have to get clear information I don’t want it to be something that might damage someone’s image.

"I don’t know why, but the news (of the immigration officer being abused) has reached me. Therefore, I ask him (Immigration DG) to investigate further so that I can get a clearer picture on what happened,” he told the media after attending the Home Ministry’s Appreciation Ceremony here last night.

He asked all parties to be patient and not make any speculations regarding the incident.

"We can’t run away from this issue because the videos are all there. If it really happened (as alleged), I will explain later,” he said.

Earlier, in an incident at 8.40am to 9.40am yesterday morning, an Immigration officer who was on duty as the Immigration Operations head at KLIA was berated in public because there was no Immigration officer stationed at the VIP room counter when the high-ranking government official arrived in the room. — Bernama