People were quite inventive: Shanmugam on why ICA scrapped 'boyfriend/girlfriend' category to enter Singapore

As Singapore sees a surge in community Covid-19 cases in recent weeks, a cluster came under the spotlight — the KTV lounges.

After the Jurong Fishery Port, it is the second-largest active cluster in Singapore with 243 cases as of Monday (July 26), and has sparked discussion among people here.

Addressing Parliament this afternoon, Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam answered questions regarding enforcement against KTV outlets as well as short term visitors.

The first woman linked to the KTV cluster on July 12 came into Singapore in February through the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category of the Familial Ties Lane, sponsored by her Singaporean boyfriend.

While short-term visitors were banned from entering the country at the start of the pandemic last year, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) received many appeals and started allowing boyfriends and girlfriends to come into Singapore last October, he said.

Noting that about one in four marriages here, from 2000 to 2019, was between Singaporeans and non-Singaporean partners, Shanmugam explained that the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category allowed Singaporeans in relationships with foreign partners to be reunited after a long separation due to border restrictions.

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But as the Covid-19 situation deteriorated in Vietnam, the unilateral opening (UO) between Singapore and Vietnam, which began last September, was suspended in February.

This meant that short term travellers from Vietnam could no longer enter Singapore under the UO.

After the suspension of the UO, "ICA started to receive many applications for the Vietnamese to come into Singapore under the boyfriend/girlfriend category. People were quite inventive," Shanmugam said as several Members of Parliament chuckled.

These applications included:

• a Vietnamese woman with multiple sponsors claiming to be her boyfriend 
• Singaporean sponsors who applied for multiple girlfriends
• sponsors who were already married to someone else
• sponsors who were unable to substantiate their relationship with the travellers

With these "dodgy" applications, ICA noticed the abuse of the "boyfriend/girlfriend" category and scrapped it in March. The authority rescinded the approvals, barred travellers from entering Singapore, and suspended the sponsors and travellers from future applications.

"We created this category (of) boyfriend/girlfriend during a pandemic, last year, October, because we wanted to be compassionate... people want their loved ones to come in, and we want to try and help," Shanmugam said.

"But if the system is abused, then we have to stop it. Unfortunately, what that has meant is that many legitimate applications are now being refused."

lamminlee@asiaone.com