15-fold spike in travellers caught trying to enter S'pore using false identities in 2022: ICA

SINGAPORE — The number of travellers trying to enter Singapore using a false identity or one different from their past trips here spiked by as much as 15 times from 2021 to 2022.

Releasing its annual statistics on Friday (Feb 17), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that the number of such cases increased from 28 in 2021 to 441 in 2022.

This came in the midst of a surge in travel volume after Singapore's borders fully reopened last year, it added. 

Travellers use such tactics to evade detection at the checkpoints, "often because they had previously committed or attempted to commit various offences in Singapore, overstayed, or had been deported", ICA said.

It also said that "multi-modal biometric clearance systems" deployed at Singapore's checkpoints in recent years have enabled it to "better detect" such travellers.

TODAY has reached out to the authority for the number of such cases during the pre-Covid-19 period. 

Apart from multiple identity cases, the number of travellers detected with forged or tampered travel documents increased from one case in 2021 to 21 last year, ICA added.

INCREASE IN TRAVELLER VOLUME 

With the full resumption of international travel last year, traveller volume surged from around six million travellers in 2021 to almost 105 million travellers in 2022, ICA said.

Traveller volume peaked during the year-end school holidays in December last year, almost returning to pre-pandemic levels at the land checkpoints.

ICA also managed an “unprecedented surge” in passport applications last year, with the number of passports issued increasing from 300,000 in 2021 to around 1.25 million in 2022. 

This was because many citizens had put off renewing their expired passports during the two years of travel restrictions for the Covid-19 pandemic.

To deal with the surge, ICA said that it redeployed officers from other work units to process passport applications round-the-clock and issued more than 1.25 million passports last year, with 72 per cent of these issued between May and October. 

On the other hand, the overall volume of containers, consignments and parcels cleared last year (9.7 million) dipped by 10.5 per cent from the previous year. 

However, spurred by high internet usage and ease of online shopping, the volume of low-value goods such as clothing and toys increased by more than 40 per cent. 

SMUGGLING, IMMIGRATION OFFENCES UP

Alongside the surge in travel, the number of contraband smuggling attempts foiled by ICA at checkpoints also increased by about 28.9 per cent — from 27,000 cases in 2021 to 35,000 in 2022. 

"Huge consignments” of contraband cigarettes and drugs were found hidden among legitimate consignments transported by lorries, it said.

“In some of these cases, the offenders had used sophisticated methods of concealment. These included hiding contraband in the convertible hood, spare tyres, door panels or in various modified compartments in the vehicles.” 

There was also an increase in immigration-related cases, with the number of illegal immigrants arrested rising from 56 in 2021 to 57 in 2022, and the number of overstayers arrested increasing by 19.4 per cent — from 299 in 2021 to 357 in 2022.

However, there was a drop of around 4 per cent in the total number of harbourers and employers of immigration offenders arrested last year.

The majority of the harbourers arrested were either family members or friends of the immigration offenders, who claimed to have overlooked the offenders’ immigration pass or did not check their immigration status.

Most immigration offenders hired by errant employers were working in sectors such as construction, maintenance, food-and-beverage or as freelance house cleaners. 

“ICA will continue to come down hard on harbourers and employers of immigration offenders, to deny them shelter and means of subsistence, and thereby make it more difficult for them to stay illegally in Singapore,” the authority said. 

It added that members of the public and employers must play their part to deter overstayers, by denying them shelter and employment, as well as reporting suspected cases to the authority. 

The number of people arrested for offences related to marriage-of-convenience went up from one case in 2021 to nine in 2022. 

The nine arrests made in 2022 comprised four couples and one person for arranging the marriage for one of the couples, ICA said. 

The foreign spouses had done so in order to prolong their stay in Singapore, with the resident spouses receiving money for helping in the application for immigration facilities. 

Regarding these offences, ICA said that it “takes a serious view” of foreigners entering into marriages-of-convenience with Singaporeans to obtain immigration facilities here. 

“We will continue to take tough enforcement action against them and also the middlemen who facilitate these,” it added.