Singapore's police apologized for an incident in which three Taiwanese women were held in custody for more than 13 hours during a pleasure trip to the city-state.
The women, who arrived in Sing-
apore on June 5, were detained by police in the early hours of June 7 after two of them were unable to produce their embarkation cards during a midnight road inspection.
They were apparently assumed to be illegal Chinese immigrants. The women were all carrying their passports but the police assumed they were fake.
Philip Mah (
According to Mah, Liu Yi-pei (
They were stopped in a taxi by police at around 1:30am on June 7 and sent to a police station for questioning after two of them failed to produce their embarkation cards.
Mah said the tourists reported their experience to the media after returning home, accusing the police of treating them rudely.
They told a Chinese-language newspaper on Thursday that they were forced to put on prison uniforms and were held incommunicado for 13 hours.
They also said they had to drink water from the toilet when they were thirsty.
In response to the accusations, Mah defended the actions of the police, saying that it was the duty of the police to investigate all suspicious cases.
Mah said, however, that the police were now investigating whether their personnel had dealt with the case improperly or treated the visitors poorly.
Mah said that after examining the three women's travel documents, the police released them at about 3pm on June 7.
He said the police regretted causing the women any inconvenience and sought their understanding over the matter.
Officials from Taiwan's representative office in Singapore were informed of the three women's situation through their Singaporean friends and intervened on June 7. The officials also filed a protest with the police over the incident.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei advised Taiwanese who visit Singapore to always keep their travel documents at hand in the event that they encounter such a situation and need to prove their identity.
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