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Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,845 Gender:  Location: None of your business
Total SGC$: 185.52 |  Illegal workers nabbed in Seletar
'Makeshift' camp in jungle had...
Camp was home to about 20 workers who picked jungle fruits, bathed in stream
HE was a nature lover who enjoyed going on long, rambling treks.
One day in February, while walking along a forest trail near the fenceline of Seletar Camp, he came across something unexpected.
The 44-year-old Singaporean, who wanted to be known only as Gary, heard voices from behind some bushes in the forest near JalanKayu.
Curious as to where they were coming from, he looked down the path, and noticed that it had been heavily used.
'I was a kampung boy, so the footprints told me that there were people around,' the businessman said.
He followed the path, and came upon a makeshift camp.
'I saw 20 surprised faces staring at me,' he recounted.
'I was just as shocked to see them. Immediately, one of them told me not to enter because it is a dead end. There were so many of them, so I just walked away.'
The men appeared to have been living there for some time, as they had built quite an elaborate number of structures within thecamp.
Word of the camp's existence soon spread among residents of nearby Seletar Camp.
Mr Eddy Goh, 44, and Mr Charles Tan, 38, were a few of those who felt uneasy.
The foreigners' hideout was just a five-minute walk from the entrance of Seletar Camp, where bungalow-type homes are.
Their unease was not helped by news that there had been a spate of thefts in their estate, where small household items have gone missing.
These include bicycles, plates and even coffee powder.
None of the residents made police reports though, thinking that the cases were not serious enough.
Mr Goh said he had, in the past, spotted foreigners picking fruits and bathing in a stream in Seletar Camp.
Mr Goh, who is self-employed, said: 'Their makeshift sheds are too close for comfort. We have stopped our cycling trips because we kept bumping into foreigners in the forest.
'I have two children who are alone at home sometimes because of my work. And since things have been stolen, I have bought a German Shepherd, a year ago, to keep watch on my children and home.'
Mr Tan, an engineer, said the foreigners keep to themselves, but he didn't think they like it when others get too close to their camp.
He said: 'One of them actually gestured to me to 'go away' when I asked about fishing there. I thought he was rude.'
A team from the The New Paper checked out the camp several weeks ago and found it well-hidden from view due to the thick vegetation around it.
Trees and lalang conceal the paths leading to the illegal hideout, shielding them from the bus stop outside Seletar Camp and the Tampines Expressway.
The only way to the illegal camp is via a partially-hidden trail under a Singapore Land Authority sign board on the Jalan Kayu-bound road.
This 1.5km-long trail ends at Sungei Punggol.
But less than 80m into the trail, a series of smaller paths lead to the mosquito-infested camp.
The walk is a little treacherous as you have to climb a fallen tree to get across a stream.
Even then, the camp is barely visible because of the trees blocking its view.
Once across the stream, you still have to deal with a fiercely-barking dog guarding the premises.
The 'mini-kampung' we discovered was a little dirty, but appeared organised.
Clam shells, bottles, plastic bags and rotting food littered the fringes of the camp.
Ripe bananas hang on a pole beside haversacks and clothes belonging to the occupants, who were away when we visited.
The camp had designated cooking areas, where firewood and cooking utensils are neatlystored.
Towels, toothbrushes and soap boxes hang from a pole near a crude bathing area by thestream.
It appears that at night, candles are used to illuminate the camp.
An altar sits at the centre of one of the larger huts. Beside it, fishing nets and parangs are laid out under thesun.
On weekends, the foreigners venture towards Sungei Punggol to catch clams andfish.
Some of the catch is immediately grilled under an expressway bridge nearby by the men, who appear to be in their late 20s and early 40s.
On two occasions, we spotted women among the crowd of men enjoying the cook-out.
Each weekday morning, the majority of the foreigners would leave camp and take a bus from outside Seletar Camp.
We saw 11 men do this while another three workers were seen walking towards Jalan Kayu after leaving thetrail.
POLICE RAID
When The New Paper conveyed the residents' concern to the police earlier this month, the police began to monitor the men who were going in and out of that camp.
That operation eventually culminated in a pre-dawn raid yesterday morning.
Seven foreigners suspected of immigration-related offences were arrested.
The raid started at about 4am.
A team of about 20 police officers and about 20 Gurkhas stormed the illegal hideout.
At 5.30am, the first suspected illegal immigrant was led to a waiting van.
Officers combed the area for at least threemore hours before sixmore foreigners were finally arrested and taken away.
The raid had obviously caught the camp inhabitants off-guard because some of them were bare-bodied or not wearing shoes.
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Source : The Electric New Paper |
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