A Facebook user complained that an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer asked him if his wife was ” a social escort he paid to have fun with”.
Mr Eyden Lee wrote on the Singapore Incidents Facebook page on Wednesday (Oct 19) that the ICA officer asked him that question at 8:20 pm on Oct 17 (Monday) when he and his wife were on their way back from a day trip to Malaysia.
Mr Lee’s wife, a Chinese national, was so upset that she started to cry.
Mr Lee wrote that, at the counter, he was asked by the officer if he had been at that office before.
He replied no, and asked why he was being asked that question.
The officer said that he was just asking, and then went on to ask “if the person next to me, my wife, was someone in his words ‘whom I have paid to have a fun time with’”.
After Mr Lee asked what he meant by that as he was taken aback by the question, the officer again allegedly asked in front of Mr Lee’s wife “if she was a social escort that you had paid to have fun with and to do something in and out of Malaysia.”
He added that Mr Lee “should know what he meant” by “social escort”.
“My wife and I were in utter disbelief,” he wrote, adding “I then asked Mr Wong if he was being serious in asking such a question because surely he should know how inappropriate and rude he was being.”
The officer is said to have replied that this is “a standard line of questioning based on, in his own words again, ‘just a basic profiling question’”.
Mr Lee wrote that he could not believe what he was being asked and got very upset, as did, understandably, his wife.
“My wife was very upset and told me to stop talking to him. She then started to cry.”
The officer escorted Mr Lee into the office while Mr Lee’s car was searched.
He ended his post by writing, “We are so upset with what had happened and my wife has since been unable to sleep well without feeling terrible.
“My wife and I would like to hear back from the relevant department on this so-called ‘basic profiling question’”.
TISG has reached out to ICA for comment.
Mr Lee added in the comments that his wife is a Long-Term Visit Pass holder who was dressed “modestly” at the time of the incident.
He also said he has reported the incident to the relevant authority.
Since it was posted, his post has received a lot of comments, with many netizens assuring him that however, unpleasant it is, the question asked is part of the officers’ jobs.
Others said that immigration officers in other countries are even worse.
“The ICA officer was doing his job – to profile people entering Singapore to prevent human trafficking,” one wrote.
Some netizens advised Mr Lee and his wife to bring their marriage certificate along when they travel, as this could help in similar situations.
/TISG