Fingerprint glitch: Checkpoint staff handled clearance appropriately

ST Online

5 Jan 2010

WE REFER to Mr Alex Chan's Forum Online letter last Thursday, 'Treated like a criminal at checkpoint after thumbprint glitch'. As the border security agency, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has in place stringent and robust checks at the checkpoints to ensure that no undesirable persons, items, or conveyances slip through our borders.

Any traveller who uses the automated clearance lanes will be referred for further checks by the duty officer if an accurate fingerprint matching cannot be carried out for positive identification. This is to ensure that immigration clearance is accorded only to the rightful holder of the passport.

Mr Chan commented that he was escorted to a detention room when he failed to clear via the automated lanes. We would like to take this opportunity to clarify that whenever fingerprint matching cannot be carried out for positive identification, the travellers concerned are referred to the duty office for further verification by the duty officer.

It was not, as Mr Chan had described, a detention room. There were other travellers in the waiting area of the duty office when Mr Chan was taken there.

Contrary to Mr Chan's claim that he had waited 30 minutes before he was attended to, our records showed that the entire conduct from the time of his referral to his departure from the duty office did not exceed 15 minutes.

We are satisfied that our checkpoint officers had handled Mr Chan's clearance appropriately and professionally.

The ICA is committed to service excellence but this cannot be done at the expense of security. As such, we would also like to seek the understanding and cooperation of all checkpoint users to help keep Singapore safe and secure.

Chia Hui Keng (Ms)

Head, Public & Internal Communications Branch

Corporate Communications Division

Immigration and Checkpoints Authority


Treated like a criminal at checkpoint after thumbprint glitch

ST Online

31 Dec 2009

I WISH to relate the treatment I received at the hands of Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers at Woodlands Checkpoint. On Dec 18, at 7.45pm, I was returning to Singapore via the checkpoint. As usual, I scanned my biometric passport at the Immigration Automated Clearance System. However, it was unable to scan my thumbprint (it is not the first time this has happened).

A female ICA officer approached me and asked me to try the other machines. I tried but still it would not work. She opened the flip gate for me to go to the counter where another officer was sitting inside. She scanned my passport at the computer, then asked me to put my thumb on another small machine to scan. She told me my thumbprint was still not clear and called a police officer to escort me to a detention room.

I really felt I was being treated like a common criminal. I waited at the detention room for half an hour with some foreigners.

I felt something was not right so I approached an inspector and asked him why I had been detained because my thumbprint was not clear. He looked up and asked me if I was Singaporean. I said I was and he immediately checked my passport and allowed me to leave.

Why did the officer at the counter in front of the flip gate not verify my passport instead of sending me to the detention room?

In the detention room, there was no coordination and I was just left waiting. It wasted my time and caused unnecessary stress to me and my family.

The authorities should have a better system in place to handle such technical problems. And people should be treated in a better way.

Alex Chan