SIX people believed to be Myanmar nationals who tried to illegally swim ashore in Singapore at the weekend were to appear in court on Monday to face charges of unlawful entry, police said.

Using surveillance equipment, police coast guard officers detected the illegal immigrants in two groups late Saturday and early Sunday, police said in a statement.

They were arrested at sea and were to be formally charged on Monday, it said.

An estimated 30,000 Myanmar nationals live in the Singapore, many of them drawn by jobs as labourers that pay far above what they could earn in their poverty-stricken homeland. -- AFP