ICA DETAINED MY SISTER FOR 6 HRS WITHOUT GIVING FOOD & WATER

I would like to share an incident happened on 28th October 2014 at Terminal 1 Changi Airport. It is regarding to the visit of my sister, a passenger who is holding Vietnamese Citizenship, arrived on Jetstar Asia flight 3K556 from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore at about 12.05PM on 28/10/2014. I am a local Singaporean, and for this my family members are still in overseas and would come for visit on and off. On 28 Oct 2014, it was the third time my sister visited Singapore on a social visit pass, and one of the officers refused her entry with all the ambiguous reasons which we now need to clarify with ICA and make an appeal for her to revisit me and my family in Singapore.

She has been here in Singapore twice before and her purposes of visit was just merely staying with me in the household and was an extra help to me looking after my kid during my absence while travelling to overseas for work. She is just a simple and mild tempered person, she has never violated any rules/law, and never committed any crime, no overstay, no illegal contraband smuggling, no misconduct, no illegal work, nothing of that sort, upon arrival she met all requirements, she had valid travel documents, she had her departure card filled in correctly, got her belongings and even mobile checked by the officers for so called security checks, she showed the officer a copy of my NRIC as a proof of her visiting purpose and to also ensure that she has a local sponsor over here who will be responsible for the entire of her stay, everything was done properly as required, she still was refused to enter Singapore.

Before being sent back to the country, she was kept SIX and a half hours in the office without any food and water and just being interrogated, when she tried to initiate a request that perhaps officer could do something extra to help clarifying the matter and trying to let them know that perhaps there was some misunderstandings or misjudgment but the officers just shouted at her and refused to let her verify or make any further request. This is not how we should treat a human being, and I supposed Singaporeans value courtesy among our-self? And I am sure we do not wish to see the fellow Singaporeans being treated badly in anyway in any other countries without having any misconduct.

I fully understand the rights of all the ICA Officers have while discharging their responsibilities. I have thought they would work work with more professionalism instead of prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination. I do know the bad reputation of the Vietnamese ladies who come to Singapore for different purposes. But not everyone is the same and I am here as a local citizen, I know what are the Dos and Donts and we would definitely take it into our consideration and awareness to make sure our family members are behaving correctly during their visits.

I just cannot see the point that they are prohibited to enter to Singapore to visit me when I was in the needy situation which I need my sister help looking after my little kid so that I can peacefully travel for work. We had to incur the cost of the airfare without knowing the reason of my sister entry refusal while we are 100% sure that we have not done anything wrong, I had to cancel my work trip due to lacking of helps from my sister. It is so unfair to us!!

In Singapore we are talking about equality and non-discrimination, not being given a good reason why my sister was refused to enter Singapore, I can only deem this case as a case of discrimination, merely because she is coming from a third world country, holding on Vietnamese passport. It disappoint me with the belief that everyone is treated fairly and equally in Singapore despite of Race, Culture, Religion, etc… What is the truth?