Written by Cheryl Ng, Advocate & Solicitor (Updated Sep 2026)
What a Red Notice is
A Red Notice is a request circulated by INTERPOL, at the instance of a member country, to locate a person and provisionally arrest one pending extradition. It is based on an arrest warrant or court order issued in the requesting country. INTERPOL itself does not issue warrants and does not charge anyone.
Before a Red Notice is published, INTERPOL’s General Secretariat reviews the request for compliance with INTERPOL’s constitution and rules. The review is conducted on paper, on the requesting country’s account of its case, and most requests pass it. A notice that ought not to have been published may therefore be published. The avenue to challenge it is before the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF).
Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Silver Notices
INTERPOL publishes several types of notices. A Red Notice is only one of them:
| Notice | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Red Notice | To seek the location and arrest of persons wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence. |
| Blue Notice | To collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation. |
| Green Notice | To provide warning about a person’s criminal activities, where the person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety. |
| Purple Notice | To seek or provide information on modus operandi, objects, devices and concealment methods used by criminals. |
| Silver Notice (pilot phase) | To identify and trace criminal assets. |
What it is not
A Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant. No country is obliged to arrest a person, or to take any other step, because a Red Notice exists. Each country decides for itself what effect, if any, to give one.
Practice differs between countries. Some countries treat a Red Notice as a basis for provisional arrest. Others, including Singapore, require their own domestic process before an arrest may be made. This difference matters when one travels.
A Red Notice is not a finding of guilt. It records that a country seeks a person, on that country’s account of its case.
Diffusions
A country does not need a Red Notice to circulate an alert. Its INTERPOL bureau may instead send a “diffusion” — a message sent directly to the police of selected countries. A diffusion reaches the receiving countries before INTERPOL’s compliance review of it is complete, and it is not published anywhere.
It should be noted that the absence of a published Red Notice does not mean that no alert exists. A diffusion may have the same practical consequences in the receiving country, and may be challenged before the same body that reviews Red Notices.
What it means while you are in Singapore
A Red Notice is not itself a power of arrest in Singapore. An arrest for extradition requires a warrant issued by a Singapore Magistrate under the Extradition Act 1968.
What a Red Notice does is set things in motion. Depending on which country is asking and what is alleged, it may lead to arrest under the Extradition Act, where the requesting country is one Singapore can extradite to. It may result in investigations against one for offences committed while in Singapore.
It should also be noted that under Singapore’s Immigration Act 1959, a person’s immigration status may be affected. A pass may be cancelled or not renewed, and a person may be refused entry or required to leave. See Can Singapore extradite you?
What this means for you: nothing follows automatically from a Red Notice. What may follow — arrest, investigation, or immigration action — depends on which country is asking, what is alleged, and one’s status in Singapore.
If you have learned of an Interpol Red Notice, or suspect one has been issued, contact us to arrange a confidential discussion about your situation.
The information on this page is general in nature and may not reflect the latest developments. Extradition arrangements change, and the law evolves over time. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice, and reading it does not create a solicitor–client relationship. For advice on your own situation, please contact us.