TOURIST OUTRAGED AFTER BEING ACCUSED BY S'PORE ICA OF USING FAKE PASSPORT

Dear Editors,

My wife and daughter decided to go on a 4 day holiday to Singapore while I was working away in Abu Dhabi. After having a fantastic time of seeing all the sights, it was now time to fly back home. When they got to the airport, this is where their nightmare started.

My daughter went through immigration with no problem but my wife got detained. She was accused of travelling on false documents. She had her phone and other personal belongings confiscated and was locked in a room. She was not allowed to make a phone call.

I had a call from my daughter who was in tears telling me that Mom had been arrested by immigration and she no longer had contact with her. My daughter had been advised to travel on alone which she did.

My wife then faced 8 hours of interrogation during which time she missed her flight. She was accused of having a false passport and every time she tried to speak she was shouted at.

I have to add that Passports are almost impossible to fake as they all have an electronic chip so a false passport would be easily detected. It is a total mystery why these fabricated charges happened.

They told my wife that she will be free to go but first they escorted her to the ticket desk where she had to buy another air ticket for the last flight of that day. After she purchased the ticket, they escorted her back and locked her in the holding cell for another one and a half hours while they processed release papers.

She then left Singapore on that last flight. My wife and daughter have both been left very traumatised by this experience and feel reluctant do do any more travelling.

I have since looked on the internet about Singapore immigration staff and the list of complaints against them is endless. It is my opinion that the Singapore immigration officers are doing severe damage to Singapore's tourist industry.

Because of these crazy accusations, my wife missed her flight and then had to purchase another ticket. Surely it should have been the responsibility of the immigration officers to pay for this as it was their fault she missed her flight.

I have emailed Singapore immigration and discussed this with their Deputy Commander Ground Ops Colin Tan colin_tan@ica.gov.sg who has said that he needs my understanding about this but the questions he has not answered are as follows:

1 Why was my wife arrested on the way out of Singapore?
2 What on earth made you think her passport was fake?
3 Why was her embassy not informed?
4 Why was she not allowed to make a phone call?
5 Why did she have to pay for another flight when that was your
responsibility?

We never intend to go back to Singapore and we strongly advise all tourists to stay away. Thank you for taking the time to read

Brett Wilson
A.S.S. Contributor