11 non-residents flying in from India allowed to enter S'pore since April 24, says Iswaran
SINGAPORE – Eleven people who were neither citizens nor permanent residents in Singapore have received exemption to fly into the Republic from India after border control measures were tightened on April 24.
Transport Minister S. Iswaran said on Monday (July 5) that these people were allowed to enter upon appeal, “due to exceptional circumstances, such as being dependants of citizens or permanent residents”.
Prior to the tightened border measures, between March 1 and April 23, there were 9,040 arrivals from India who were neither citizens nor permanent residents of Singapore, Mr Iswaran added.
He said that 8,404 people – about 93 per cent – among these arrivals were long-term pass holders. The majority of them were work permit holders in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors. They came in to support key strategic projects and infrastructural works, said Mr Iswaran.
The remaining 636 were short-term visit pass holders.
Mr Iswaran provided the figures in a written reply to a question raised in Parliament by Workers’ Party MP Dennis Tan (Hougang).
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who was then Education Minister, announced on April 22 that all long-term pass holders and short-term visitors who had travelled to India within the last 14 days would not be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore from 11.59pm on April 23.
The move also affected people who had received approval to come in but had not made the journey before April 24.
The decision to close the border came on the back of a rapidly worsening Covid-19 situation in India then. There was also growing public concern about the risk of imported cases from the country.
In a separate reply to a second question from Mr Tan, Mr Iswaran said travellers from India have not been allowed to transfer or transit at Changi Airport since commercial scheduled flights between Singapore and India stopped in late March last year.
“Between March 1 and May 15, two travellers were granted special dispensation to fly from India through Singapore to their final destination on an Indian government-approved chartered flight operated by an Indian carrier,” Mr Iswaran added.
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