Firstly, why am
I on this forum?
Well, I typed
in 'denied entry to Singapore' in Google and found a thread here
for a Thai girl friend who was denied entry, but this thread was
closed so I though I would keep the discussion live as the world
needs to know how the Republic of Singapore ICA operate. I
rather suspect that this will not be allowed to continue as an open
topic for long.
Our
story.....Working at various locations around the world I travel a
lot but have recently been working between Singapore and Kuala
Lumpur. In March I met a very nice Vietnamese young widow in K.L.
We got along
together and she has spent time with me in K.L. in between
returning home to her work in Ha Noi.
Before anybody says it, no she is not innocent or whiter than
white, under no illusions there but she is a good,
kind, honest and trustworthy lady who has done her best to
bring up her son alone in currently hard economic conditions in
Vietnam. Not easy for her and she has my respect. She has also
never had a problem in Singapore and only visited once with her
husband as tourists 10 years or more ago.
So near the end
of July my work was taking me to Singapore. At the last minute she
agreed to take more time off her work to come with me. My ticket
was booked in advance by my employer and the flight was full apart
from some extortionately priced first class tickets so I booked her
on an Air Asia flight which arrived at just about the same time. In
retrospect that was a mistake but of course it shouldn’t have made
any difference. After all its the same person
travelling.
Any way, I
arrived at Singapore to find that my girl friend was entering on a
different terminal in Changi and so a different immigration point.
I cleared into terminal 2, Singapore and went round to terminal 1
to wait for her. Her phone would not work in Singapore but some
kind gent lent her his to phone me. I told her the hotel name where
we would be staying (after all we had expected to be together so
she didn’t know the name) and told her that she was to give
immigration my telephone number and tell them I was outside in case
she had a problem. I did not expect that she would have but her
English falls apart under stress.
Well she surely
did have a problem. After waiting for around 40 minutes and seeing
her bag through the glass going round and round the carousel alone
I was getting worried.
I contacted the
information desk where they said she was probably detained by
immigration. They said that they could not go and find out or
anything else but did give me the number to ring for the
immigration desk inside. I rang it and rang it many many times over
the next hour but it was never answered. Everywhere I went for
assistance or information they said that they could not/would not
help. There is no ICA representation outside of the arrivals and
you cant get back in. A deliberate policy I suspect.
After about an
hour I got a text message from Air Asia (who I had also been to
see) saying that she was unable to enter Singapore and would be
sent back to K.L. No explanation or reason given. Strange as nobody
had tried to contact me, she had around 1000 dollars on her so was
not destitute and had a ticket home in 7 days time. What else could
there be wrong? I cant find anything on the ICA web site that says
Vietnamese need anything else to enter Singapore. In fact there is
an agreement between the two countries that states that Vietnamese
citizens do not need Visas pre arranged and can take 30 days on
arrival, no pre-conditions stated.
Next day I had
a call from her from K.L. saying that she was back there. The
authority in K.L. would not let her in as she had used her full 30
day visa and she would be sent back to Vietnam. If the Singapore
ICA had listened they would have sent her to Vietnam in the first
place as she had a ticket to Ha Noi. This of course was not used so
the cost was lost.
Eventaully she
got home, minus her suitcase which turned up 4 days later but with
items missing, stolen from it. Thanks ICA!
I finished my
job in Singapore and returned to the U.K. She went back to work in
Ha Noi.
After 5
weeks apart I was back in K.L. and she came to see me. No problems
with Malaysian immigration. They had the courtesy to ring me for
confirmation of her status when she arrived.
I was to go
again to Singapore for work so early September I contacted the ICA
to ask why she had been previously refused entry. This is where it
gets very hard. They are very slow to reply and do not provide full
information or details. They refused to state why she had been
denied entry and my girl does not know the reason either. Despite
what they say she has not been given anything in writing to say why
she was rejected. This it seams is common practice with the ICA.
Don’t believe me? Then google ‘refused entry to Singapore’ and look
at all the cases and most have the common theme of no apparent
reason given, minimum investigation and snap decision by the
immigration authorities.
I see the Indonesian government is threatening retaliatory action
against Singapore citizens if this does not change.
Communicating
with the ICA is like hitting your head on a wall. No sense comes
from the e-mails and there are no numbers to ring. If you do get
through to the misnamed 'help desk' they just tell you to use
e-mail on the ICA feedback and the direct telephone number for the
appeals department I was eventually given was never answered just
switched to an answering machine.
After about 12
days with several slow e-mail exchanges I was finally informed that
I had to make an appeal using form 14 on the ICA web site. Why
isn’t this information given to victims (I think this is the right
word) of the ICA discrimination at the time of the denial? Any
way I filled in the form for her, stuck on her picture, explained
on my application that she couldn’t get a sponsor in Singapore as
she did not know anybody there and sent it off by e-mail scan. Then
nothing……..
A few days
passed by so I sent an e-mail enquiring about the status as I was
coming to Singapore soon. This time I had bought the ticket for her
on the same flight as myself. I got a reply a day later saying that
they would submit the application, it would take 4 to 8 weeks to
process and they would post the reply!!!
Why didn’t they say that in the first place, is it some guarded
secret like everything else?
I postponed my
travel but had to come to Singapore for work eventually. I couldn’t
wait 4 to 8 weeks. We discussed it, my girl and I, and as I had the
tickets for her any way, we decided to come to Singapore together
and try. After all, I couldn’t leave her behind for weeks in K.L.
and besides in 16 days I was to leave for the U.K. again. Tried
once more contacting the ICA to tell them but couldn’t get through
to anybody. Just that answering machine again.
Arrived in
Singapore and sure enough I was given an entry visa and she was
stopped. This time I was with her so managed to go to higher
management in the airport ICA. They all said the same however. No
she couldn’t enter until her ‘case’ had been reviewed and she was
given a letter saying she could enter. Even though I explained her
situation and assured the officer that she was staying with me in a
booked hotel, had a ticket home and that I would take full
responsibility for her they refused to budge or use any discretion.
My girl has now been returned to K.L. and onwards to home.
Fortunately I had booked a flexible ticket for her so her travel
was easier. The only difference is that this time they have
completed the refused entry form which she has been shown. Probably
again because I was there so they actually had to follow their own
procedures. What was on this form? Denied entry because: ‘Being
ineligible for the issue of a pass under current immigration
policies’. This is of course a totally meaningless phrase and still
does not explain on what grounds this is based.
So what do I
think of the ICA? You can imagine my
opinion but politely; they are arrogant, inflexible, uncaring,
blinkered jobs-worth’s with no understanding of the problems they
cause unnecessarily to the people they decide to reject seemingly
on a moments whim but I suspect more likely target driven, based on
gender and nationality stereotyping with no real investigation and
more importantly no transparency in their decision making. They do
not provide a proper open appeal system with clear information to
the person involved and hide behind unpublished and invisible
‘rules’ which cannot be challenged from outside as outsiders don’t
know them. They are seemingly only accountable to themselves
without proper government oversight. It would be interesting to
compare the number of rejected Vietnamese citizens with say
rejected Japanese citizens. I think that there might a slight bias
against certain nationalities.
This is at odds with the current expressed views of high level
government including the Prime Minister of Singapore who has urged
closer economic, business and social ties with Vietnam and the move
to
I wonder how
the Singapore people would feel if the same arbitrary ‘rules’ were
applied to them when visiting other countries in the
region.