National Day Special: Formerly stateless, now this Singapore citizen is free to sink roots and travel without fear
Operating theatre technical assistant Alexander Franklin Alrivers at a food centre near his home in Jurong West.
Mr Alex Alrivers still feels nervous every time he enters an airport to travel overseas.
Despite having attained his Singapore citizenship and receiving his pink identification card and red passport five years ago, the formerly stateless man is still haunted by bad memories of having to explain to immigration officials on countless occasions why he did not have a proper passport. Instead, up until 2017, he had a "certificate of identification" that not all countries recognised.
Once, in 2016, he was turned away upon arrival in Vietnam and had to fly back to Singapore on the same day.
"(The Vietnamese authorities) didn't get the gist of the idea that I was a 'Singaporean' but that I was also not a Singaporean," the 55-year-old said. He simply had to accept their decision not to let him into the country, which he wanted to visit so he could meet his wife's family, who were eagerly awaiting his arrival.
When he returned to Singapore, he said he was immediately escorted out of the arrival hall by two immigration officers.
"I was so furious, I pulled my arms away," he said. "I said 'I'm a Singapore Permanent Resident (PR), coming back to my own country, don't treat me like I'm an illegal immigrant'".
