Dedicated Lanes at Immigration for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents after Introduction of Automated Lanes for Foreigners

Mr Darryl David asked the Minister for Home Affairs in view of the announcement by ICA on 13 February 2024 that all foreign visitors to Singapore can soon clear immigration at the air, land and sea checkpoints using automated lanes by the second half of 2024, whether there will still be dedicated lanes at these immigration checkpoints set aside exclusively for Singaporeans and permanent residents.

Mr Speaker, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will still set aside lanes for dedicated use by Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs). The proportion of dedicated lanes will be flexibly adjusted to meet prevailing operational needs, taking into account the traveller profile.

I would like to thank the Minister of State for the reply. I am heartened to know that there will still be dedicated lanes reserved for Singaporeans and PRs and, more importantly, that these lanes will also be used or made available, based on the demand at the checkpoints. Just a supplementary question, Sir, which is, I understand that right now, there could be some Singaporeans – especially the younger ones – those who cannot use the automated lanes – children and so on – and their families, therefore, have to travel with them. I would like to ask the Minister of State if there are some measures that could be taken also to enhance the flow of such families of Singaporeans or PRs who might not be able to use the automated lanes through the checkpoints?

Sir, I thank the Member for the question. It is a very important question and a good question, I must say. In fact, I visited Terminal 2 recently, during the festive period, to thank our officers for working during the festive period; and among the facilities that I saw was the special assistance lane. These are for families, especially those with young children, and also for those with additional needs. We had the lane very, very, very wide and it enables even those with very young children to go through. They can pass through as a group, as a family. So, if you look at what we have shared recently during the statistics release, we are building some of these lanes. For some, we have completed; for example, Terminal 2 that I visited, it is completed. And we are among the first, if not, the first in the world, to have these facilities.

This is something that we continuously think about, especially when we go towards the New Clearance Concept, where we want to enhance the travelling experience for not only our residents and PRs, and Singaporeans in particular. Because this is something that we want to make sure of: that when they go out of Singapore and then, they come back to Singapore, they feel not only happy when we land at Changi Airport or pass by our checkpoints, but they have the ease of entry to make it easy for them.

So, we will continue to look at how we can enhance the travelling journey process of our Singaporeans.