The Straits Times – 15 May 2000

Illegal immigrants nabbed in raid on unfinished HDB flats

By Chong Chee Kin

A PRE-DAWN raid yesterday on unfinished Housing Board blocks at Sengkang netted six illegal immigrants who had made the flats their home – raising the question of whether more such flats are being used as hideouts.

      Mr Henry Siow, managing director of Safe Technology, the security firm which organized the raid, said: “Recently, the police had flushed out a lot of illegal immigrants at lodging houses and rental flats. These offenders, who are now without a place to stay, may target these unfinished flats as their homes.”

      The raid was ordered by the main contractor, Chew Eu Hock Construction, to flush out illegal immigrants who were believed to be hiding out at three 16-storey blocks at Sengkang East Road. A Straits Times team that followed the raid party on its checks at the blocks found unfinished flats which had been turned into simple homes.

       A straw mat placed on a tiled kitchen floor served as a bed. For some, a towel was laid over the mat for added comfort. A plastic bag stuffed with clothes became a makeshift pillow.

      The six who were caught are from Myanmar, India and Thailand. One of them, a Myanmar national, was sleeping in a second-storey unit when the 30-strong raiding party descended on the uncompleted block.

      He darted out of the flat and clung on the scaffolding for several seconds, before dropping almost 4 m to the ground below, hitting his chin along the way.

      Bleeding from his chin, the wiry man pleaded to no avail with the security officers to let him go.

      The Police were called to the scene and an ambulance arrived to take him away.

      Mr Siow said later that there were some irregularities in the documents produced by the men who were rounded up by his officers.

      He said: “One of the illegal immigrants from Myanmar claimed to have a work pass and showed it to us. But it was a forged copy which bore the name of a Thai worker, and this man we caught could not speak a single word of Thai.”

     “The flats here are nearly completed, and a possible concern is that these illegal immigrants may come in to steal or damage certain items in the flats.”