A tourist has claimed that she had her rights violated when she was questioned by immigrations police officers while making her way into the country from Changi Airport!According to the tourist, the incident happened on 30 June at 12.15AM at Changi Airport where she had just touched down after a flight from Taipei, which transited in Manila and finally landed in Changi Airport.
When she arrived at the airport, she claims she told police officers at the immigrations desk that she was coming to visit her girlfriend, a Taiwanese with a work permit in Singapore to study Chinese from her. She also showed the officer her handphone with an e-ticket showing that she is departing to Kuala Lumpur on 27 September.
The police officer later sent the tourist to another immigration desk where she repeated her story. However, this time she says an officer took her handphone and started surfing through her messages and Whatsapp. Feeling outraged, she tried to get the officer to return her phone as this was an invasion of her privacy to her, but the officer-in-charge allegedly “threatened” and “became violent screaming” at the tourist.
The tourist was eventually sent to a room and given back her handphone. She claims she also had her photos, along with some measurements and fingerprints taken without any explanation.
When she again demanded for the name of the person who look through her handphone, she alleges that the officers she spoke to refused to give her any details. She says she requested to be allowed to call her girlfriend, but this request was denied.
The tourist was later taken to another room at 2AM and told that she would be deported to Manila. Her phone was returned to her only at about 10AM, just before her flight to Manila was about to leave. She was also horrified when she looked at her air ticket details and saw that she had been classified as a “Filipino”.
She writes: “After 3 months they answer to my complaint is that your police acted well, no one has explained anything, nor given me any reason why I can not enter your country or if I have done something illegal, refuse to give me number of identification of the police that took the cell without my permission and threatened me, I have only been received automatic computer generated answers.”
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