Carried on page 2 of the Home section, the Straits Times (Monday, December 19, 2011) featured various non-profit organisations’ messages and activities marking International Migrants’ Day, including TWC2’s.
Leading the story was the call by Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics’ (HOME) for a specialised anti-human trafficking law. “We urge the state to make our laws work effectively for the protection of migrant labour against exploitative practices and unjust working conditions,” said Home president Bridget Tan in her organisation’s statement.
Reporting on TWC2’s press statement, the newspaper wrote:
Separately, welfare group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) has called on the state to, among others, treat migrant workers better.
Their right of stay is wholly dependent on the sponsorship of an employer who is given the unilateral right to cancel the work permit and repatriate the worker without notice, its statement to the media yesterday read.
It added: ‘Migrant workers are not allowed to seek work and transfer to another employer without the permission of their existing employer thus having no job mobility unlike other workers.’
This gives employers ‘opportunities to exploit’ them, TWC2 said.
The Straits Times also mentioned the outreach event held at The Pigeon Hole last Saturday (December 17).