Fewer immigration offenders, including overstayers, last year

SINGAPORE — Fewer people were caught breaking the Republic’s immigration laws last year, with the total number of immigration offenders falling by 19 per cent to 2,040 compared to 2013.

Immigration offenders include illegal immigrants, foreigners who overstayed and locals who harbour such offenders.

The number of illegal immigrants arrested last year dropped by nearly half to 350, showed the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) annual statistics report released yesterday. Foreigners arrested for overstaying fell by about 12 per cent to 1,690.

“Despite the improved situation, we need to remain vigilant to keep our borders secure. IOs (immigration offenders) pose potential law and order problems for our society and we must take a tough stance against them,” the ICA said.

Its multi-pronged approach in tackling the situation includes having deterrent laws, and conducting stringent border checks across Singapore’s 26 checkpoints.

As the number of people arrested for harbouring immigration offenders last year increased by 7 per cent to 250 people, the ICA urged homeowners to “exercise due diligence” when renting their property to foreign tenants.

Homeowners should conduct checks such as verifying a prospective tenant’s original immigration pass and checking his personal particulars against the original passport.

The authorities’ efforts to crack down on illegal employment appeared to have borne fruit, with 69 employers caught last year for hiring illegal workers, down from 97 in 2013.

Although there was a 6 per cent drop in the number of contraband cases detected to 93,380 at various checkpoints, the ICA noted that some people were turning to online shopping to buy prohibited or controlled items and then having these sent by post to evade detection.

In one case last month, drugs suspected to be ketamine and ecstasy were discovered in a locked safe box disguised as a book in a parcel.

The problem of fake marriages also continued, but relatively fewer people were caught for saying “I do” for the sake of obtaining immigration documents. Last year saw 170 people convicted of marriages of convenience, compared to 284 in 2013. Matthias Tay