Travelling overseas is fun because it comes with experiences we might not encounter in Singapore.
However, some of these experiences can be surprising to those who’ve lived most of their lives in our law-abiding nation.
A Singaporean said he was allegedly asked for a “tip” when he was passing through immigration at an airport in Vietnam.
The immigration officer has reportedly been put on leave over the incident.
In a Facebook post on Monday (2 Jan), Singaporean Kugan Pillai related an incident that happened on the same day, when he was at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport.
Source: Facebook
He was departing the country and heading back to Singapore, so he had to pass through immigration for the last time.
Normally, one hands over their passport and boarding pass to the immigration officer for checking, but this time the officer wrote something on his “air ticket”, he said.
According to the photo he shared, the word “Tip” was written clearly on the back of what appeared to be his boarding pass.
Source: Facebook
Initially uncertain about what he saw, Mr Pillai asked the officer to clarify.
However, the man allegedly just kept pointing to the word “Tip”.
He also was holding on to his passport, so there was a sort of impasse.
Feeling helpless and rushing for his flight, the Singaporean eventually caved in and gave the officer S$28.57 (500,000 Vietnamese dong).
Though Mr Pillai finally made it past immigration, the incident left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He likened the feeling to being “held hostage” as if the officer wouldn’t stamp his passport if he didn’t hand over the money.
Thus, he reported the incident to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Though S$29 doesn’t seem like much, it turned out that Mr Pillai didn’t even have to pay that much.
Speaking to BBC Vietnam, he said that he initially thought someone else had written on his boarding pass.
When he realised what was going on, he asked how much he had to pay and the officer allegedly said S$11.50 (200,000 dong).
However, he only had a 500,000 dong note, so he asked for change and the officer agreed, he claimed.
But the officer allegedly pretended that nothing had happened and didn’t give him the change, Mr Pillai added.
The Singaporean eventually had to move on when the next person’s turn came.
Ultimately, Mr Pillai gave in as he was afraid, he told the BBC.
He had heard that “bad things happen”, he said.
Moreover, since he was with his girlfriend, he didn’t want to put her in harm’s way.
Besides calling the MFA, he also decided to share his experience online as he couldn’t swallow what had happened. He remarked,
It goes against my principles and values when I surrender to corruption, especially to people who people have faith in.
His Facebook post has since gone viral with 11,000 shares and 21,000 reactions as of Friday (6 Jan).
Many netizens recounted similar stories in the comments, while those claiming to be Vietnamese apologised to Mr Pillai for the experience.
The immigration officer in question has since been put on administrative leave, reported VietnamNet.
Source: Kugan Pillai on Facebook
A spokesman from the Immigration Department reportedly said that they had received a report from the Noi Bai Airport police.
They swiftly took action to identify and suspend the officer.
No further information is available at the moment as the matter is still under verification.
However, should the department confirm the alleged offence, they may impose stringent penalties.
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Featured image adapted from Kugan Pillai on Facebook.
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