The neighbourhood in Sengkang where Nony said she was being held (we were there at night, not in the day)
Earlier this month (March 2023), TWC2 was alerted to a case of a domestic worker who was put in a difficult position by her employer, being taken out of the country and tasked to work in Johor Baru, Malaysia. Although we at first judged that she was not in any imminent danger, things escalated one evening, and we had to respond to her cry for help.
And not a moment too soon either. Not long after her last conversation with us, she became uncontactable on her phone and we feared the worst.
In this two-part audio report, TWC2 vice-president Alex Au interviews the two persons who took immediate action that evening: volunteer and TWC2 executive committee member Mizue Sauco and TWC2 general manager Ethan Guo.
As is clear from Part 1, we were not successful in locating her and so, even though it was past office hours, we had to ask the Ministry of Manpower to trace her. We hoped that the delay would not leave her even more vulnerable. MOM swung into action.
In Part 2, Ethan and Mizue tell us what happened next.
Nony was so traumatised, she wanted to go home to Indonesia as soon as possible. And even then, things did not go smoothly; she was confronted by the Indonesian agent at the arrival airport and we had to alert an Indonesian non-governmental organisation, SBMI, to assist her if needed.
More importantly, just because she has been repatriated, we hope the file is not closed on the various violations she reported. The issues still need to be addressed and violators taken to task.