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[h=1]ICA staff's refusal to check faulty machine costs S'porean, 86, time, money and stress[/h]
IT WAS supposed to be the start of a joyous journey for my father-in-law to celebrate his 86th birthday, but it was nearly aborted before it could begin.
Accompanied by his wife and two relatives from Britain, he arrived at the Singapore immigration checkpoint at Woodlands on Sept 1, a Saturday, to catch the 8.45am train to Taiping in Malaysia, where more than 20 relatives waited to join him on a cruise from Penang to Thailand.
Alas, a passport scanner machine "swallowed" his Singapore passport when he slotted it in.
Although he articulated his predicament to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers clearly, they insisted that the scanner could not have retained the passport.
They searched my father-in-law and his luggage three times, ruining the zip of his bag in the process. They also searched his wife and the person behind them in the queue.
The train was held up and Malaysian immigration and railway officials came to the scene.
The closed-circuit television video was then checked, but did not show anyone taking the passport.
My father-in-law was advised by an ICA officer to visit its headquarters in Kallang Road, which could issue a new passport to him in five hours.
But she had no answers when it was pointed out that as it was a Saturday, the office closed at 1pm.
Meanwhile, the train had departed, leaving my father-in-law behind.
As he kept insisting that the scanner be checked, an immigration officer finally shone a torch into the slot - and saw the missing passport.
The vendor for the machine was summoned and the passport was returned to my father-in-law, who had to rush to Beach Road to buy a bus ticket to Taiping.
The ICA refused to reimburse him for his wasted train ticket or his damaged bag.
Fortunately, he arrived in Taiping in time to meet his relatives, and they had a lovely cruise together.
The ICA should impress on its front-line staff that no machine is infallible, and train them to handle situations where a machine fails, so that no one else need suffer the kind of treatment and anxiety my father-in-law did.
Mickey Chiang
IT WAS supposed to be the start of a joyous journey for my father-in-law to celebrate his 86th birthday, but it was nearly aborted before it could begin.
Accompanied by his wife and two relatives from Britain, he arrived at the Singapore immigration checkpoint at Woodlands on Sept 1, a Saturday, to catch the 8.45am train to Taiping in Malaysia, where more than 20 relatives waited to join him on a cruise from Penang to Thailand.
Alas, a passport scanner machine "swallowed" his Singapore passport when he slotted it in.
Although he articulated his predicament to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers clearly, they insisted that the scanner could not have retained the passport.
They searched my father-in-law and his luggage three times, ruining the zip of his bag in the process. They also searched his wife and the person behind them in the queue.
The train was held up and Malaysian immigration and railway officials came to the scene.
The closed-circuit television video was then checked, but did not show anyone taking the passport.
My father-in-law was advised by an ICA officer to visit its headquarters in Kallang Road, which could issue a new passport to him in five hours.
But she had no answers when it was pointed out that as it was a Saturday, the office closed at 1pm.
Meanwhile, the train had departed, leaving my father-in-law behind.
As he kept insisting that the scanner be checked, an immigration officer finally shone a torch into the slot - and saw the missing passport.
The vendor for the machine was summoned and the passport was returned to my father-in-law, who had to rush to Beach Road to buy a bus ticket to Taiping.
The ICA refused to reimburse him for his wasted train ticket or his damaged bag.
Fortunately, he arrived in Taiping in time to meet his relatives, and they had a lovely cruise together.
The ICA should impress on its front-line staff that no machine is infallible, and train them to handle situations where a machine fails, so that no one else need suffer the kind of treatment and anxiety my father-in-law did.
Mickey Chiang
