ATTRACTED BY THE BRIGHT PROSPECTS of jobs and abundant opportunities in Singapore, some illegal immigrants attempt to swim across from this spot in Johor with the aid of crude flotation devices. -- ST PHOTOS: DESMOND WEE

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There are fast-flowing currents, rocky outcrops and deep water along which the odd motorised boat travels, propellers slashing through the surface and sending a choppy wash rippling outwards.

Yet this has not deterred desperate Myanmar nationals from taking the plunge and making the scary swim across to enter Singapore illegally.

Those undertaking the daunting open-water swim set out in the dead of night, strip down to their underwear, putting their clothes into plastic bags tied around their arms, which act as flotation devices.

Some slip into ring-shaped rubber floats and painstakingly paddle across. When the police show up, they submerge themselves and breathe through snorkel-like tubes.

Others take an even more dangerous approach: They tape tubes to their mouths and submerge themselves to escape detection whenever a boat nears.

Those who make the gruelling physical journey are the very desperate ones. There are boats whose owners are prepared to make the risky trip, for a fee - about RM200 (S$87) a person.

These various means of slipping into Singapore across the waters were revealed to The Sunday Times in interviews with over 70 legal and illegal Myanmar immigrants in Singapore and JB.

They hailed Singapore as a land with abundant opportunities and equal rights, and one of them quipped: 'Of course we all want to go to Singapore. If I could, I'd take my whole village there.'

But only the fishermen and strong swimmers among them dare to go across. Whether by boat, or by swimming, if caught attempting to enter Singapore illegally, they face six months in jail, a fine of up to $6,000 or at least six strokes of the cane. They are then deported to Myanmar.

Myanmar nationals told The Sunday Times they could be jailed indefinitely in Myanmar, adding that getting caught in Malaysia was a luckier deal: Offenders simply get booted across the peninsula's northern border to Thailand, where they could either stay put or pay several hundred ringgit to agents to help them get back into Malaysia.

To them, the worst punishment is getting sent back home because they would be going back to debts chalked up to fund that failed escape. Yet still they come.

Indeed, barely two months into the year, of the 29 illegal immigrants caught by the coast guard here, over half - 16 - were Myanmar nationals.

They all want to be free of persecution by their country's military regime and start life afresh.

On why some choose to make the risky illegal crossing, Mr Mg Mya Aung, 39, who has worked in JB as a mechanic for 20 years, said: 'It's dangerous to swim across. But we Myanmar people would rather die in another country than our own. We would rather be killed by other people than our own.'

Seven Myanmar nationals who entered Malaysia illegally told The Sunday Times in JB of harrowing journeys through the Myanmar-Thai and Thai-Malaysian borders, hiding under seats in buses, taking trains and sampans, trekking through rubber plantations and wading through swampy rivers.

Some push farther south and swim across the Strait of Johor into Singapore where they believe they will be better treated and better paid if they find work.

Myanmar national Ko Ko, 28, a coffee shop assistant who has been living in Malaysia for five years, said in fluent Mandarin: 'Singapore is very strict and the police show no mercy if they catch you. But some of us here cannot find jobs, so we want to take a chance in Singapore.'

Official figures put the number of Myanmar nationals in Singapore at between 50,000 and 60,000, said Associate Professor Daniel Lwin, 62, president of the Myanmar Club here.

But he reckons the figure is closer to 100,000, mostly students, professionals and legal unskilled workers.

Prof Lwin does not know of illegal immigrants coming here, but said the number of Myanmar nationals coming to Singapore has surged in the wake of last year's pro-democracy protests. The protests began on Aug 15 after the price of fuel was doubled.

The Sunday Times understands that various types of people flee the country - students, farmers and graduates such as engineers, and those who are Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's west, bordering Bangladesh.

Hazardous journey

FOR the illegals among them, the perilous sea crossing to Singapore, whether on boat or by swimming, is the final leg of a 2,000km journey of hope and hazard.

Whether they are escapees with passports, or simply those willing to take their chances as illegals, fleeing Myanmar for a better life abroad starts with booking a passage out with a 'travel' agent.

It is like buying a tour package, except there is no 'free and easy' option, with the asking price hinting at the journey's level of comfort - or discomfort.

Illegal immigrant Tun Tun, 21, paid a Myanmar 'agent' RM2,000 in November last year to get him out of the country and into Malaysia.

His six-day bus journey with 50 to 60 of his countrymen ended at the Myanmar-Thailand border.

There, they alighted in groups of four to five and trekked for an hour to cross from Myanmar into Thailand, and, a few days later, from Thailand into Malaysia.

'I walked up and down slopes through mud and crossed swamps. I'd no idea if there were crocodiles. But I was more worried about getting caught by the police,' he said in Malay in JB.

Another Myanmar national, Saw David Tun, 21, smuggled himself out of Myanmar five months ago by hiding under the floorboards of a bus in a secret compartment which gave him barely any room to move. He then trekked through the highlands at the Myanmar-Thailand border to avoid police detection.

Still other Myanmar nationals have taken motor boats from Myanmar to Thailand, from where they boarded buses and trains to Malaysia. Those with passports simply fly from Yangon to Kuala Lumpur before heading out to the various states by taxi.

In Malaysia, Myanmar nationals work in shoe and tyre factories, and keep in touch with their families back home by phone. They also send money home through trusted agents.

Mr Ye Min Tun, the secretary-general of Malaysia's Burma Workers' Rights Protection Committee, a United Nations-affiliated group, said about 400 Myanmar nationals entered Malaysia illegally every month before last September's protests by monks. After the protests, numbers shot up to 700.

He said that Myanmar's military junta, in the hope of encouraging the young and educated to leave, has shortened the waiting time for passport applications.

But those suspected of having supported democracy still have a hard time getting travel documents, he said. These just flee the country without passports.

Mr Ye reckoned that, of the 100,000 Myanmar nationals in Malaysia, 45 per cent are illegal immigrants with no passports. Those in Malaysia are known to pool their money to pay 'agents' anything from RM950 to RM5,000 to bring a countryman over. The new arrival will then repay this debt in instalments after finding work in the country.

The Sunday Times found out that RM200 can buy a chartered boat trip to Singapore from JB's Stulang Laut, which is five minutes from the Causeway.

If RM200 cannot be scraped together, these desperate individuals take a 30-minute swim across the Strait of Johor.

Anglers and JB residents say they have spotted men attempting to cross the waterway while keeping their eyes peeled for Malaysian and Singaporean police patrol boats.

Stulang Laut resident Larry Wong, 57, said: 'There are so many rocks there and this is not an area where it's safe for people to swim for fun.'

An avid Johor angler in his 40s, who wanted to be known only as Mr Azmi, said he has seen Bangladeshis and Myanmar nationals swim across in twos and threes, heading out before rainstorms, when visibility is low.

He said they used to go across in sampans, but not any more because these show up on radar. So they paddle across now. Mr Azmi said he has seen some reach the Singapore side safely this way.

Myanmar nationals said that they used to get across by holding on to water pipes that run parallel to the Causeway to avoid being swept away by the currents. But the pipes have since been fenced up and fitted with spikes.

Mechanic Mr Mg has a friend who is supposed to have made the crossing last month and was expected to call on arrival. Mr Mg has had no news.

Like Mr Mg, coffee shop assistant Ko Ko had a friend who wanted to go to Singapore. 'He told me: 'I'm a good swimmer'. That was the last I heard of him.'

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