S'porean woman in JB for day trip ends up detained for 7 days after arguing with M'sian officer

A Singaporean woman was on her way to Johor Bahru for a day trip when she got into an argument with a Malaysian customs officer.

She ended up detained in Johor Bahru for seven days and six nights.

The 36-year-old says that during this time, she was harassed and pressured to sign a Malay language form.

She was eventually released — apparently after her brother called Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

Shared in a TikTok video

The woman, Atalia Chua, posted about her experience in a TikTok post.

She also shared the details with Mothership.

Chua arrived at Johor's Bangunan Sultan Iskandar checkpoint north of the Woodlands Checkpoint at 8:40am on Aug. 7.

After her biometric scan failed twice, she went to a counter, where she was met with an "aggressive" male officer.

The officer allegedly informed her that the counter was closed.

He apparently got upset when Chua asked how a woman had previously gone to the same counter.

He repeated that the counter was closed, and Chua went to a different counter.

"However, he became verbally abusive and aggressive — shouting at me with hand gestures," Chua told Mothership.

He also allegedly shouted at her in a mix of Malay and English.

Passport confiscated

In response, Chua told him to stop, pointing out that she was already at a different counter.

She also threatened to film him if he continued shouting.

He persisted, and she began filming him.

At first, he "smiled, waved, and made a 'peace' sign", Chua claimed.

He then began to shout again, and demanded her passport.

Believing that he would confiscate it, Chua refused.

The officer then got her passport from the officer at the second counter.

Afterwards, he walked into an office with the confiscated passport.

Chua followed.

Told her to delete video

At the customs office, Chua says she was told that she could leave if she deleted the video, but she refused.

She was then told that she would be detained.

One officer allegedly took a photo of her covertly, and raised his fist at her in a threatening manner when she confronted him over it.

"I felt very objectified, sexualised, harassed, and threatened," Chua said.

"If I was really locked up, they could enter my cell in the middle of the night."

She eventually agreed to delete the video.

However, the officers told her that they would be confiscating her phone "to send it to forensics".

She was then brought to a detainment office where she was strip-searched by female officers, who made remarks about her appearance, Chua said.

While some of their comments were in Malay, she said she could make out words like "fake eyelash", "vain", and "fat nose".

Signing of forms

Chua was also told that she would have to sign forms stating her particulars, possessions, and dates of detainment.

However, they were in Malay.

Unwilling to sign forms that she could not understand, she refused and requested an English version instead.

She added:

"I want to emphasise: the offence I was charged was not stated anywhere (the section number), nor what the offence was about (details of the offence).

They did not explain my offence to me either, verbally, or in any way, since I arrived at JB."

They ended up detaining her regardless, without her signature.

Detained for 6 more days

For the next six days, Chua was detained in the centre.

She shared a cell with three other women — two from Myanmar, one from Thailand, and one from Indonesia.

She remains in contact with both the Burmese women, she told Mothership.

During her stay at the detention centre, male officers would come to the cell and look at her, calling her "Singapore" instead of by name, she said.

"The first night I did not sleep at all and used the blanket to tie the gate because I half-expected [one officer] and his friends to rape me in the middle of the night."

On Aug. 8, she was told of her offence: failure to comply with the officer-on-duty.

She was then asked to give a statement to the officers, but insisted on making a phone call first.

The officers refused.

Brother called

On Aug. 9 — the third day of her detention — she was told that her brother, Elijah, had called asking about her.

He had become worried after he realised Chua hadn't texted their mother for three days.

Elijah then contacted MFA, who in turn contacted the embassy in Malaysia, and finally found that Chua had been detained.

"He wanted to drive up to see me but was turned away because it was after working hours," she said.

The next day, she was allowed to call Elijah, who said the officers had explained that she had been "rude to officers and uncooperative because I refused to sign forms".

On Aug. 12, her brother visited her.

He told her to sign the forms so she could be released, and despite initially resisting, she eventually relented.

Chua was released the next day at 4pm, after being issued a warning letter.

She had by then spent six nights in the detention cell.

She also was returned her phone, with all the incriminating material deleted.

"Very, very, very angry"

Even though the conditions "weren't so bad", Chua said it was the way she was denied phone calls that made her especially angry.

She added that this was particularly because her mother gets "worried about [her] very often".

"My mother became sick during the seven days I was gone and I was so furious [that] I cannot communicate anything to her," Chua added.

"They deliberately did not let me call at least one person to let them know where I am. It was extremely cruel and vicious."

She added that despite the harrowing experience, the detainees were treated relatively well with a clean cell and "decent and basic" food.

A few officers were also "truly upright and principled" in their treatment of detainees, she said.

"This is a valuable experience. You learn something, we learn something," one of the "upright" officers allegedly told her.

She concluded:

"It’s one of the most interesting, fascinating, dramatic, and farcical events in my life. I do not trivialise this event at all because it was an utterly humbling lesson learnt and life-changing."

Top image from Atalia Chua