A man has come out to claim that his passport was torn up by a customs officer when he attempted to enter a certain country — resulting in him being detained for hours after the authorities believed that he was using falsified documentation.
Facebook user Muhammad Nuruzzaman was careful not to mention the name of the country he tried to enter, but it’s pretty much deducible that the alleged incident took place at a Malaysian immigration checkpoint, seeing that he traveled by car. It also remains unclear which checkpoint (the Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ Complex on the Tuas side or the Sultan Iskandar CIQ complex in Woodlands) he was referring to.
According to the man, the accused officer had torn his passport in front of him but blamed Nuruzzaman instead. She was said to have confronted him about why he tried to enter the country with a torn passport.
A picture shared by Nuruzzaman showed a Singapore passport with its cover ripped from the rest of its contents. It’s hard to verify though if it was even his passport in the first place.
Despite his attempts to defend himself, he was apparently held in an office for hours before being threatened with arrest and confiscation of his vehicle.
“Thank god one of my work colleagues came in like an angel to help me out to get the Singapore embassy officers on the phone and to help me out,” Nuruzzaman wrote.
“Finally, a call was made to them and they released me in the end with much hesitation as they were adamant on arresting me,” he continued, adding that officers refused to reveal the name of the person who allegedly tore up his passport. He was released and returned back to Singapore.
“The feeling of coming home is definitely damn good as you know that you have your rights in your country and you know that this kind of corruption or corrupted behavior doesn’t take place in Singapore.”
Similar experience
It’s hard to take Nuruzzaman’s post seriously as it was only based on his word, and he made no mention of pursuing the alleged case by lodging a police report in Singapore.
But if it were true, it might not be that surprising. Back in September, another Singaporean man faced a similar encounter during an attempt to enter Malaysia. According to Facebook user Muhammad Fauzi, an immigration officer ripped his passport and prevented him from entering the country with a damaged document — unless some hush money was given. Unlike Nuruzzaman however, Fauzi posted proof that he lodged a police report about the alleged case of attempted bribery.
Another man posted a picture of his torn-up passport, claiming that a Malaysian immigration officer did so.
