Arrivals security screening at SIN?

[ChrisFlyer]

Recently transited SIN T1, where I noticed that at gate C24 (at around 8:15pm on Feb 3), there were rope barriers up directing all pax arriving on that flight to a standard screening checkpoint. Armed personnel were guarding the perimeter of the area, and there were temporary signs in place in the area stating that "arrivals screening is in progress......"

Firstly, why bother conducting arrivals screening at all in SIN? The terminal itself isn't a sterile area, and screening is only conducted at the boarding gate (so if they were transiting, they would still have to clear *another* security checkpoint before the onward flight, and if they were leaving the airport, they would still have to clear Customs/Immi... I've read elsewhere that some have suggested it's due to lax screening from the point of departure - but even if that's the case, what's the point of screening on arrival if not entering a sterile terminal area, and the flight is already over? There are no security checks whatsoever at SIN (until the boarding gate) for passengers starting their journey there, so it seems I just don't get it!

I've never been screened on arrival at SIN. In fact, the only place I've had arrivals screening was when flying into SYD domestic on an old QFLink Beechcraft plane from NTL (despite there being x-ray and metal detector screening at NTL, but SYD obviously deemed it inadequate by comparison to enter their departure terminal area).

PS: I don't know how to check which flight that was, though with the date, time, terminal and gate number, hopefully someone on here might know!

 

[dajop]

Very common to have arrival screening on flights from Philippines, Indonesia (esp flights originating from outside Jakarta) and even had once arriving from HKT (never BKK though). Has happened to me on multiple times from flights from such places (to the point where I am pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen!). Minor inconvenience, usually they have an army of security on hand to facilitate rapid processing. Never had these checks for flight originating from Australia, China, Japan etc.

General concept I think is lack of trust in security at originating airport, and although there is, as you point out screening at each gate, I guess one can still do some damage in the airport itself (noting that about 30-40% of time carry on luggage gets a random precursory xray prior to passing through immigration as well). Also have heard suggestions about looking for illicit substances, but not so sure about that.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

looking for drugs, but also to check immigration status of arriving passengers... you'll often see something similar (but without the security) at hong kong airport for arrivals from places such as Sri Lanka (and I think a couple of Bangkok flights I have been on too)