Despite having attained his Singapore citizenship and receiving his pink identification card and red passport five years ago, theis still haunted by bad memories of having to explain to immigration officials on countless occasions why he did not have a proper passport. Instead, up until 2017, he had a"certificate of identification" that not all countries recognised.
"I was so furious, I pulled my arms away," he said."I said 'I'm a Singapore Permanent Resident , coming back to my own country, don't treat me like I'm an illegal immigrant'". It is a huge improvement in their circumstances, he said. For 13 years prior, the couple were living in a rented room as they were ineligible to buy a HDB flat as non-citizens.
After Singapore gained independence, the couple were classified as stateless permanent residents who had lost their foreign citizenship. While their oldest child, born in 1954, was able to obtain citizen status with proof that she was born here, their two younger children, born post-1965, took on their stateless status. Mr Alrivers himself was born in 1967.
Happy National day Alex