Security Breach at Woodlands Checkpoint

Mr Hri Kumar Nair asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs if he can provide an update on the review following the

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unauthorised entry by a Malaysian driver through the Woodlands Checkpoint on 8 March 2014 and what steps will be taken to prevent such incidents.

On 8 March 2014, at about 4.00 pm, a Malaysian driver, after having cleared Singapore immigration, drove his Singapore-registered car to the secondary clearance area for security checks. When an Auxiliary Police Officer (APO) was inspecting the boot of the car, the driver suddenly got into the car and drove off. The APO immediately pressed the alarm, which triggered the activation of the security barrier. The car's progress was stopped by the barrier. Several officers at the scene responded to the alarm and an APO was injured in the process of stopping the car from leaving. However, the driver persisted in trying to drive across the security barrier. He managed to force his car over the security barrier and exit the checkpoint.

Police confirmed the identity of the driver within 15 minutes of the incident and activated an island-wide search for the driver and the vehicle. Taxi drivers were also asked to look out for the car. Meanwhile, Police continued to establish and follow leads to precisely locate the driver and the car. Police steadily closed the ring around the driver and subsequently arrested him five hours after the incident. His car was separately recovered at another location prior to his arrest. He has been charged in court for offences under the Penal Code and Vandalism Act. He is also being investigated for contraband goods smuggling and other offences under the Customs Act.

Our investigations revealed that the security barrier initially stopped the car, but failed to stop the car from leaving because hydraulic fluid leaked from one of the cylinder seals for raising and maintaining the position of the security barrier. The security barriers are checked and serviced every three months, and the last servicing was done on 18 February 2014. Following the incident, ICA is replacing the hydraulic components in all the security barriers and is also conducting daily checks to ensure that the security barriers function properly.

Mdm Speaker, this was the second incident in two months in which a car had successfully breached Woodlands Checkpoint. After the first incident on 17 January 2014, various immediate measures were implemented to strengthen

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the security at Woodlands Checkpoint, including tightening the coordination between ICA and Police, improving the response protocols and conducting drills and exercises to validate the response plans and enhancing the supervision of the APOs. Other measures, such as installation of additional CCTVs and enhanced security barriers, are being expedited.

ICA and Police will also be deploying mobile crash barriers and tracking vehicles as additional lines of defence to stop suspect vehicles from fleeing the checkpoint and apprehending all suspects.

The two breaches show the scale and complexity of the checkpoint operations. This requires a team of officers able to carry out robust and effective measures to prevent and deal with a wide range of threats, including attempts to get through the primary or subsequent layers of security at our checkpoints. At the same time, our land checkpoints have to facilitate the swift and secure clearance of people and goods. Finding the right balance is not easy.

A Ministry-level review committee, chaired by Senior Deputy Secretary Khoo Boon Hui and comprising senior representatives from ICA, Police, ISD and other Home Team agencies, has been formed to comprehensively review the security measures at our checkpoints and identify any systemic issues and rectify them. This Committee has updated me on the progress of the review, including enhanced security measures already undertaken – which I had listed earlier – and the need for interim arrangements while wider systems are further improved.

MHA views each and every single security breach seriously. If there are gaps and failings in our security regime, be they structural, systemic or individual, we must quickly and thoroughly address them. Commissioner ICA and the other relevant Home Team Department heads have given their full commitment to take concrete actions at all levels to quickly put right any weaknesses, and implement measures to ensure that our border security is tight and effective to keep out all threats. MHA HQ will give them our full support.

Mdm Speaker, I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for his reply. I understand this is a complex issue, and I also see that structural facilities are being enhanced to improve security. So, I just have two questions. Firstly, if a vehicle should breach the checkpoint, should there not be other standby vehicles to chase them down? The fact that Singapore is small, the five hours spent to find the vehicle is too long, especially if we have a potential terrorist threat, for example. Secondly, manpower is an issue today.

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Is it difficult to recruit Police Officers and has that contributed to some of these lapses?

Indeed, five hours is a long time. We have looked at the measures and we will be instituting additional measures to take care of this issue. Those who are travelling through the Causeway may see an additional line of barrier. The first objective is to try and prevent people from exiting the checkpoint and to contain cars and individuals within the checkpoint. We are also putting in vehicles which will be able to follow any suspect vehicles that leave the checkpoints. Those are being put in place.

In this particular case, Police was able to identify the subject within a very short time because he had cleared immigration. And so, we knew his identity, his address and various other things. They were actually tracking him quite closely after the breach. They localised him and then arrested him. Very early on, Police was able to come to an assessment that this case was not likely to be terrorist-linked.

As I had mentioned in the Committee of Supply (COS) debate, manpower for the checkpoints and at ICA has increased quite substantially since we did a review in the mid to late 2000s. A substantial increase in manpower had been provided at that point in time. I would say that our major constraints today are infrastructural because the checkpoints themselves were built some time ago and it is a very tight space. They were built before September 2001. Many of the security measures that are being put in place had been added on to the existing infrastructure at the checkpoints. These measures have, therefore, resulted in some delays to the clearance of particularly vehicles through the checkpoints.

We have done a number of things to maintain security while increasing the capacity at the checkpoints. For example, since then, we have reopened the old Woodlands Checkpoint and put in new facilities there, including four additional counters for lorries and 20 additional counters for motorcycles in 2008 and 2009. We are putting in 30 additional car counters by 2016. Today, ICA is already opening up 20 of these car counters during peak periods, Sundays and public holidays. We try to maintain a balance between tight security as well as making sure that we clear cars as smoothly as possible through the checkpoints.

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Motorcycles contribute another very large volume of traffic at the checkpoints. There are more than 72,000 motorcycles passing through every day. Thirty percent of motorcycles today use the automated self-clearance system. They come up to the immigration counter and both the rider and the pillion clear through automatically. ICA will continue to channel more passengers and vehicles to use these self-clearance modes. We are now going to bring all Work Permit and S Pass holders to be automatically enrolled on ICA's Automatic Clearance System by the middle of this year. This will make 95% of all Malaysian motorcycle trips eligible for automatic clearance.

What this will do is it will help to speed up clearance of motorcycles, reduce the queues for motorcycles, and, therefore, free up some of the existing capacity for other vehicles. Again, this will help us strike a better balance between speedy clearance as well as tight security.

Mdm Speaker, one supplementary question for the Deputy Prime Minister. I understand the latest news is that there was another attempt yesterday of another driver from Malaysia attempting to make an illegal entry at Woodlands. Are there any indications, in the review and investigation, why there seems to be a heightened increase in frequency in recent months of these sorts of attempts? Is there any indication whether this is an upward trend that is likely to continue, or is it too early to say?

The Member asked if there was a case yesterday of a Malaysian who attempted to evade immigration checks. He was stopped according to the procedures and was arrested. Police will take the appropriate action against him. He came through, so far as we know, with no travel documents on him. We are investigating the matter. This incident shows that we do require tight checks on both sides of the border to make sure that there is some redundancy in our checks.

There will always be attempts by people to evade customs or immigration checks. This is not unique to Singapore. People will present false documents, they might sneak in and so on. Overall, I would say that our border security is very tight. Although we have detected instances of people either attempting to or inadvertently passing through immigration or customs without proper clearance, we have managed to contain most of them.

In the three cases that have evaded and exited the checkpoints, the persons were subsequently arrested and appropriate action was taken. I would say that

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the measures that have been taken at the checkpoints have been reasonably effective in deterring and containing entry into Singapore by persons or goods that are not allowed to.