Fewer immigration offenders arrested in H1
Posted: 15 August 2012 1156 hrs
ICA Building
SINGAPORE: The number of immigration offenders arrested continued to fall in the first six months of the year, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).
From January to June 2012, 1,318 were arrested for immigration offences, an all-time low and down from the 1,698 arrests made in the same period last year.
Most of those arrested were overstayers.
The number of harbourers and employers of immigration offenders arrested has also been falling steadily.
Fifteen harbourers of immigration offenders were arrested in the first half of 2012, compared to 18 in the same period last year, representing a drop of about 9.5 per cent.
Similarly, the number of employers of immigration offenders arrested also decreased by 16.7 per cent to 19 in the first half of the year, compared to 21 in the same period in 2011.
ICA said its multi-pronged approach to weed out illegal immigrants and overstayers remains effective.
It added that the close working relationships that it has forged with its strategic partners, including the police and the Ministry of Manpower, have contributed to the downward trend of immigration offences.
Coupled with tough laws, immigration offences in Singapore have been kept in check.
The number of contraband cases also fell slightly.
For the first half of 2012, there were 39,500 contraband cases, down 2.7 per cent from the 40,600 cases in the same period last year.
ICA also identified an emerging trend of smugglers trying to bring in controlled and prohibited items using parcels.
Between January and June this year, officers detected 19 cases of partial or incomplete declaration of parcels. There were four such cases for the same period last year.
Some of the common items brought in included sexual enhancement pills and cigarettes.
- CNA/wm/al
