Discrepancies in immigration entry and exit records

Ms Gho Sze Kee: To ask the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs in view of the recent cases of long-term overstayers discovered after many years (a) how many discrepancies between immigration entry and exit records are there currently on ICA’s records, where individuals have no record of exiting Singapore when they should; and (b) whether the median length of overstay has been increasing since 2019.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. Based on the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) records, there are currently 500 to 600 overstayers whom ICA is trying to track. This is less than 0.001% of our annual visitor arrival numbers. The median duration of foreigners who overstayed and were arrested each year has remained stable since 2019, averaging at about three months.