Singapore cops deny claims of entering Malaysian waters, chasing off local fishermen

KUALA LUMPUR - The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has denied claims that the republic's police coast guard (PCG) has entered Malaysian waters and chased off local fishermen who were fishing on Monday.

In a statement today, SPF explained that the incident occurred at the Singapore Territorial Waters (STW) when the PCG was patrolling the waters and detected a Malaysian fishing vessel at the waters near Tuas at 6.55am.

SPF said at that time, there were several other vessels but they were in the Malaysian waters.

“The PCG boat then confirmed a Malaysian fishing vessel was in Singaporean waters. There were several other Malaysian fishing vessels at the time, but all the boats were in Malaysian waters.

“PCG officers then came closer to the boat and advised the fishermen to immediately leave Singaporean waters.

“However, the fishermen’s net was damaged and the PCG officer was in the process of attempting to remove the net from the engine propellers.

"We would like to emphasise that the PCG officer was enforcing the law in Singaporean waters, not Malaysia,” the statement said.

On Aug 16, four local fishermen claimed that a Singaporean enforcement boat had ran into them and damaged the prawn net in the waters at the Tebrau Straits. - AWANI