More nabbed for harbouring, hiring illegals
The number of people harbouring and employing immigration offenders has gone up, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) announced on Friday (Feb 19).
Last year, 416 harbourers were arrested, 166 more than the 250 harbourers caught in 2014.
That year, 69 employers were nabbed for hiring immigration offenders.
The number jumped to 91, last year.
ICA said working closely with the police and the Ministry of Manpower led to the increase in the number of culprits arrested.
One challenge ICA faces comes from online shopping, which led to more contraband items seized.
ICA said 18,419 parcels and packages were detected last year.
This is more than the 14,289 detected in 2014.
Items seized included stun guns and sex enhancement pills.
There was some improvement in the number of marriage of convenience cases reported.
There were 170 cases in 2014.
This dropped to 64 cases last year, down 62 per cent.
Get the full story in our print edition (Feb 20).
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