Illegal immigration to Singapore is the process of migrating into the Republic of Singapore in violation of its immigration laws. Singapore is an attractive destination especially in the region as it is a country with a strong currency that offers high living standards, including in education, wages and safety as well as an overall far higher quality of life compared to its neighbours. [1]
Most illegal immigrants in Singapore often come from its neighbouring country Malaysia as well as the People's Republic of China (PRC). As Singapore is an island country, illegal border crossings are not as prevalent. Instead, many of these illegal immigrants start out with legal visas in Singapore before subsequently overstaying in the country.
To deter illegal immigration, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has warned that the punishment for illegal immigration in the country will result in a mandatory caning sentence of not less than 3 strokes and a prison sentence. [2] [3] It is also illegal for Singaporeans to harbour illegal immigrants. In 2021, Singaporean Xu Yixuan was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment for harbouring immigration offenders from the PRC. [4]
In 2019, a Bangladeshi and a Malaysian were arrested after a high-speed chase for attempting to enter Singapore's northern coast, near Punggol. [5] In 2020, three people were arrested for attempting to enter Singaporean waters by boat before they were intercepted by the Police Coast Guard (PCG). The nationalities of the three was a 44-year-old Indonesian man, a 41-year-old Indonesian woman and a 39-year-old Malaysian man. [6]
In 2019, a Malaysian man who had overstayed in Singapore since 1995 was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in addition to a S$2,000 fine. 64-year-old Choo Juan Suan had entered Singapore without a valid pass around July 1995. ICA officers arrested him at a flat in Tiong Bahru that previous year after he failed to provide evidence that he was in Singapore legally other than producing a Malaysian passport. [7]
In 2021, a Malaysian man who became an overstayer in Singapore after his work permit was canceled subsequently decided to go on a crime spree, including theft and fraud. Consequently, 26-year-old Song Yin was arrested and subsequently sentenced to two months and seven weeks' jail in addition to three strokes of the cane. [8]
That same year, a Malaysian man was arrested after 20 years on the run for smuggling illegal immigrants into Singapore. 46-year-old Siva Kumar Ramachandram was arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) as his original crime involved bribing a CISCO officer at the border checkpoint between Singapore and Malaysia. The officer was convicted that year for corruption and sentenced to 1 year imprisonment and fined S$2,800. Siva was given an additional six months' imprisonment on top of his original sentence of five years and 12 strokes of the cane which he had jumped while on bail. [9]
In 2022, a Malaysian man who overstayed in Singapore for about 7 years was sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane for cheating and immigration offenses. 40-year-old Er Chern Siew had come to Singapore to find a job, but without a valid work permit, he couldn't work legally. He subsequently decided to work ad-hoc jobs illegally such as a salesman and attempted to avoid detection by continuously moving his place of residence throughout Singapore. He then engaged in rental scams, cheating 14 individuals totaling S$10,450 and was arrested after a victim filed a police report against him. [10]
The strict punishments for being caught as an illegal in Singapore has deterred some illegal immigrants; illegal immigration steadily declined from 2001 to 2011. [11] [12] [13] Nevertheless, illegal immigration remains an issue in Singapore. In 2019, ICA carried out more than 100 operations in locations suspected in harbouring illegal immigrants throughout the country for deportation, arresting almost a thousand offenders. Of these, 128 were illegal immigrants and 804 were overstayers. [14]
Caning is a widely used form of corporal punishment in Singapore. It can be divided into several contexts: judicial, prison, reformatory, military, school and domestic. These practices of caning as punishment were introduced during the period of British colonial rule in Singapore. Similar forms of corporal punishment are also used in some other former British colonies, including two of Singapore's neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Brunei.
Capital punishment in Singapore is a legal penalty. Executions in Singapore are carried out by long drop hanging, and usually take place at dawn. Thirty-three offences—including murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, use of firearms and kidnapping—warrant the death penalty under Singapore law.
Human rights in Singapore refers to rights both legal and in practice. Since Singapore's independence in 1965, the legal rights of its citizens have been set out in the Constitution of Singapore and include rights found in subsequent amendments and referendums. These rights have evolved through Singapore's history as a part of the Straits Settlements, its years under Japanese occupation, its position as a separate self-governing crown colony, and its present day status as a sovereign island country and city-state.
Salakau, which means 369 in Hokkien, also known as "Sah Lak Kau", is a street gang or secret society based in Singapore. The numbers 3, 6 and 9 add up to 18, which was the name of an older gang; the number signified the 18 arhats of Shaolin Monastery. As one of the oldest and most prominent gangs in the country, they are known to take part in many illicit activities such as narcotics, extortion, prostitution and white-collar crime — and many of their members have been in and out of prison for violent attacks and rioting. They have a renowned gang chant sung in Hokkien that is usually accompanied by techno beats, particularly the song "Million Tears". It was reproduced for Royston Tan's teenage gangster flick 15, albeit with direct references to the gang edited out.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) is a law enforcement agency within the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the border control agency responsible for frontline border control operations at air, sea and rail ports in Singapore.
Ang Soon Tong is a secret society based in Singapore and Malaysia. According to a former police officer, the society was active as early as the 1950s, mainly in the Sembawang area. In 1998, a 19-year-old youth was arrested for setting up a website dedicated to the society.
Choo Han Teck is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was formerly a lawyer before his appointment to the court as a judge. It was revealed in 2021 that Choo was one of the defence lawyers representing Adrian Lim, the infamous Toa Payoh child killer who was executed in 1988 for charges of murdering a girl and boy as ritual sacrifices. In 1994, Choo also defended Phua Soy Boon, a jobless Singaporean who was hanged in 1995 for killing a moneylender.
Caning is used as a form of corporal punishment in Malaysia. It can be divided into at least four contexts: judicial/prison, school, domestic, and sharia/syariah. Of these, the first is largely a legacy of British colonial rule in the territories that are now part of Malaysia, particularly Malaya.
See Kee Oon is a Singaporean judge who is currently a Judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The Arms Offences Act 1973 is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalizes the illegal possession of arms and ammunition and the carrying, trafficking, and usage of arms. The law is designed specifically to make acts of ownership, knowingly receiving payment in connection with the trade of a trafficked armaments and ammunition, as well as the unlawful usage of arms and ammunition a criminal offence.
Caning is used as a form of judicial corporal punishment in Brunei. This practice is heavily influenced by Brunei's history as a British protectorate from 1888 to 1984. Similar forms of corporal punishment are also used in two of Brunei's neighbouring countries, Singapore and Malaysia, which are themselves former British colonies.
The 2010 Kallang slashings refer to a series of four robberies committed by a group of four Malaysians from Sarawak, Malaysia in the night of 29 May 2010 and the early hours of the morning of 30 May 2010, mostly around Kallang Area, Singapore. In the robberies, there were a total of four victims – the first three victims were seriously injured and hospitalised while a fourth victim was killed.
On 30 October 2010, at Downtown East, Singapore, 19-year-old Darren Ng Wei Jie, a Singaporean student from Republic Polytechnic, was slashed by 12 youths from a rival gang after a staring incident between one of Ng's friends and one of these youths attacking him. Ng suffered from 28 knife wounds and died in Changi General Hospital five hours after the incident. The case was classified as murder, and the police arrested all the suspects. Six of them were charged with murder, but all except one were sentenced to serve lengthy jail terms with caning for culpable homicide, while the others were sentenced to varied jail terms and caning for rioting.
Chan Seng Onn is a Singaporean judge who presently serves as a Senior Judge of the High Court of Singapore. Formerly a prosecutor, Chan had previously served as a High Court judge from 2007 to 2022.
Yap Weng Wah, alias Wai Loon or Loon, is a Malaysian serial sex offender, who formerly worked as a quality assurance engineer, and is currently jailed in Singapore for 76 sexual offences committed against 31 teenage boys aged between 11 and 15 in Singapore. He befriended his victims online, had sex with them and filmed his illegal acts. During police investigations, Yap was found to have raped 14 more boys in Malaysia in between his constant trips from Singapore to Malaysia before his arrest.
Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping by ransom, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, and trafficking of firearms, in addition to caning or a fine for certain offences that warrant life imprisonment.
On 25 November 2016, at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, Singapore, during a heated argument, Ahmad Muin bin Yaacob, a 23-year-old Malaysian cleaner, killed his 54-year-old supervisor Maimunah binte Awang by stabbing her with a pair of grass cutters and bludgeoning her on the head repeatedly. He stole Maimunah's jewellery and abandoned her body in a drain before he fled back to his hometown in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan, Malaysia. He pawned some of the jewellery for money to afford his wedding expenses. Ahmad was arrested by the Royal Malaysia Police a month later on 18 December 2016, merely nine days after his marriage. Ahmad was extradited back to Singapore the next day to be charged with intentional murder. On 4 November 2020, Ahmad was found guilty of a lesser charge of murder in his trial and he was sentenced to the minimum sentence of life imprisonment and eighteen strokes of the cane, after the prosecution agreed to not argue for the death penalty in his case.