SINGAPORE — Starting from the second half of 2024, all foreign visitors to Singapore, regardless of nationality, will be able to use automated lanes to clear immigration at all of the city-state’s checkpoints.
Currently, the automated lanes are available only to Singapore residents and passport holders from 60 jurisdictions. When the process is opened to all foreign visitors, they will not need pre-registration before entering Singapore, nor present their passports when they leave. This will make Singapore the first country in the world to offer such a clearance process to all visitors.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in its release of the 2023 annual statistics on Tuesday (13 February) that this simplified clearance process is enabled by the introduction of the next-generation automated border control system, which utilises multi-modal biometrics that capture a person’s iris, facial, and fingerprint details.
The system will progressively replace existing lanes and manual counters at checkpoints. Over 160 automated lanes were installed in 2023, with an additional 230 lanes to be set up in 2024.
Almost 193 million passengers were cleared in 2023
According to ICA, there was a significant increase in traveller numbers in 2023, with almost 193 million individuals cleared across all checkpoints. This marks an 84 per cent increase compared to 2022, when about 105 million travelers were cleared.
The 2023 figure is still slightly lower than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, where over 217 million travellers were cleared. However, ICA highlighted that the traveller volume at land checkpoints during school and public holidays has surpassed pre-pandemic levels since the borders reopened in 2022.
During these peak periods, traffic flow through Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints witnessed nearly 13.6 million travellers cleared, averaging about 440,000 daily, compared to about 400,000 before the pandemic.
Despite the increased volume, ICA said that travellers’ experiences such as clearance times have generally improved. It attributed the improvements to the deployment of more automated lanes and allowing more visitors to utilise these lanes.
Rise in contraband, forged travel documents and immigration offences
Alongside the increase in travellers, there has also been a rise in cases of contraband, forged travel documents and immigration offences in 2023.
Contraband cases increased by 23 per cent from 35,000 in 2022 to 43,000 in 2023, while cases of forged and tampered travel documents tripled from 21 to 65.
The total number of immigration offenders arrested rose by 42 per cent from 414 in 2022 to 587 in 2023, with the bulk being overstayers at 542. There were also more arrests of harbourers and employers of immigration offenders, increasing from 226 in 2022 to 327 in 2023.
ICA said that the rise in immigration offences may be attributed to the easing of travel restrictions and an increase in intelligence-led operations, which rose from an average of 40 per month in 2022 to 58 in 2023.
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