The Singapore government submitted its National Report for the Universal Periodic Review 2026 in January this year.
Because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – one of the pillars of the UN system – covers a broad range of rights, Singapore’s report necessarily covers many topics. Furthermore, due to word limits, the government would not have been able to be too exhaustive on any particular topic. So, whilst TWC2 and HOME in our joint report were able to devote all our permitted word length (half of the State’s permitted word limit) to just the issue of migrant labour – and other organisations working on other areas, e.g. the disabled, or freedom of expression, were also able to submit detailed reports on their areas of interest – the State was unable to do the same. We feel we need to say this upfront to be fair.
Paragraphs 27 to 32 of the State report (a.k.a. National Report) deal with migrant workers, and they are quoted below for our comment.
What is the UPR?
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council that reviews each UN member state’s human rights record every four or five years against the standards set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The review is conducted by a country’s peers among UN member states. Singapore underwent its most recent review in May 2026.
In the lead-up to the review, the Singapore government had to submit a report on the state of human rights in the country. The full report can be seen here. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also invited submissions by other stakeholders, including civil society, on Singapore’s record on human rights. As in previous UPR cycles, TWC2 and HOME submitted a joint report, which we published earlier in 2026.
First, however, a more general observation would be pertinent: it is the way the State report primarily speaks of “well-being”, dwelling on healthcare, accommodation, and social and recreational facilities.
Important though they may be, from migrant workers’ experiences, these are not the biggest frustrations they face. Instead, the issues of recruitment cost and its consequential debt, misrepresentation during the hiring process, contract substitution after arriving in Singapore, salary non-payment, and barriers to changing jobs (even if the employer is a bully) are far bigger problems for them. Actually, “frustrations” and “problems” are words that often do not convey the extent of injustice involved.
What is contract substitution?
Contract substitution is said to occur when an employer, knowing that an employee is highly vulnerable to coercion, demands that the employee agree to new terms of employment that are worse than what the employee had originally agreed to when taking up the job.
Migrant workers, often compelled by circumstances and the exploitative nature of the recruitment system, typically find themselves having to borrow thousands of dollars (sometimes as much as $16,000) to pay agents. Such sums can represent 24 to 36 months of basic salary. Their debt is at the highest when they have just started on a new job, yet have not even received their first paycheck. Unscrupulous employers pounce on such moments to demand that the new employee agree to a lower salary or else the work permit will be cancelled.
The International Labour Organisation treats contract substitution as an indicator of human trafficking.
In 2025, TWC2 had 26,000 conversations with migrant workers over our digital hotline. This figure would largely represent unique workers; our system has almost no duplication. Separately, our case officers and volunteers had thousands more face-to-face conversations with workers when the latter came to our service points and roadshows.
What issues do workers raise when they talk to us? Recruitment cost, debt, misrepresentation during the hiring process, contract substitution, salary non-payment, excessively long hours, bullying and barriers to changing jobs.
What issues do they almost never talk about? Well-being or recreation.
We’re pretty sure that HOME, with whom we partnered to compile our joint UPR report, has long made the same observation.
By choosing not to focus on the issues that most affect workers, the report minimises the importance of these frustrations and injustices. It’s a pattern that we have observed for a long time with the government’s response whenever they have to address the subject of migrant labour.
From the State report for the UPR:
27. Singapore remains an open and connected hub for international businesses and foreign workers. We want businesses and workers to grow and create good job opportunities, and progress in a symbiotic relationship. Work Permit holders (commonly known as migrant workers) make up a sizeable part of Singapore’s workforce. Our work pass framework for migrant workers, including migrant domestic workers, is shaped by our context as a small and densely populated city state that needs to carefully balance economic needs, protections of workers, and the ensuring of social cohesion and integration of persons residing in Singapore.
28. Over time, Singapore has made significant progress in improving the well-being of migrant workers, through enhanced healthcare access, improved accommodation standards, and expanded social and recreational options.
There it is, an attempt to shift the spotlight onto what the government can perhaps brag about, and avoid the most pressing issues from migrant workers’ point of view.
29. Legislative protection. Migrant workers are generally accorded the same protections as local workers under our employment laws [footnote 19 ]….
It is true that the Employment Act and the Employment Claims Act apply to both local and migrant workers. But this superficial statement does not capture the reality that the protections offered by legislation are more easily seized by local workers and more out of reach to migrant workers. For example, a local employee who is made to work excessive hours in violation of legal limits will feel far more free to quit and look for another job. A migrant worker will feel more compelled to accept the reality and put up with the violation without complaint. Why? Because there are severe restrictions on the latter’s freedom to change jobs – restrictions which arise from another piece of legislation, the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, which only applies to migrant workers.
29 (continued)…. To provide better safeguards for workers, compensation limits under the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 were reviewed and increased from 1 November 2025 onwards. The employment rights of migrant workers, including migrant domestic workers, are also protected under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990.
As we mentioned in passing above, the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act restricts the freedoms and options available to migrant workers as much as it protects them. And since the State report will be turning to migrant domestic workers next, it’s worth mentioning that this category of workers are excluded from Work Injury Compensation Act.
29 (continued)…. To ensure that migrant domestic workers use their weekly rest days to form networks of support outside their employers’ household, the Government has mandated since 2023 that migrant domestic workers must be provided at least one rest day a month which cannot be compensated away.
Observance and enforcement of the rules remain patchy. HOME would have more data than TWC2 since they handle far more domestic worker cases than we do. Even so, we had a case from late 2025 where the domestic worker worked ten years without a single rest day. She was an exception, no doubt, but how does a case go undetected for so long? That itself says a lot.
30. Healthcare and housing improvements. Singapore has significantly improved migrant workers’ access to healthcare and adequate housing. Since 2022, employers of migrant workers living in dormitories or working in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors are required to purchase and maintain a Primary Care Plan for their workers [footnote 20]. The plan gives migrant workers unlimited access to primary healthcare at nominal fees of S$5 (US$3.85) per visit, or S$2 (US$1.54) for each telemedicine consult. Mandatory medical insurance coverage by employers for all migrant workers was also increased from a S$15,000 (US$ 11,546) annual claim limit to S$60,000 (US$46,185) in 2023, which is sufficient to cover over 99% of medical bills generally incurred….
The above statement about mandatory medical insurance coverage glosses over a major weakness which TWC2 and HOME highlighted in our report. It’s all very well to raise the minimum coverage in insurance policies but the system remains one where it is the employer who has to activate the policy. Many workers needing medical care continue to go without because their employers will not do so.
30 (continued)…. Building on lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore expanded the regulatory coverage of the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act 2015 [footnote 21] in 2023 and imposed higher living standards for new dormitories from 2021. There is also a transition plan to upgrade existing dormitories to interim standards by 2030 and to the new standards by 2040 [footnote 22].
31. Education and well-being. Migrant workers’ well-being and smooth integration in society is a key concern. First-time migrant workers are required to attend a Settling-inProgramme (SIP) covering their employment rights, local laws and customs, and available support channels. The Government has set up eight Recreation Centres to meet the social and recreational needs of the migrant worker community. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) also works with partners to organise programmes that fosters appreciation of migrant workers as well as Singapore’s cultural diversity. For migrant domestic workers, we conduct regular medical check-ups, house visits, and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) interviews in addition to the SIP. These enhanced touchpoints provide migrant domestic workers with safe channels to raise concerns and gain access to support beyond their employers’ households. A 24/7 helpline with native-language counsellors, and a dedicated WhatsApp channel launched in 2024 provide migrant domestic workers with access to reliable information and support.
As far as we know, no real, independent NGO is invited to play a role in the above. We believe the “NGOs” the paragraph above speaks of are actually government-linked bodies.
32. MOM’s Migrant Domestic Worker Study in 2021 and Migrant Worker Experience Survey in 2024 showed that over 9 in 10 of these workers were satisfied working and living in Singapore and would recommend Singapore as a place to work. Our survey findings affirm the positive impact of ongoing efforts to uplift standards and enhance support for our migrant workers.
Regarding the 2024 survey, see our comments about how the data is interpreted in three earlier articles:
this one about worker satisfaction,
this one about IPAs and salaries, and
this one about passports, meals, etc.
Trafficking in persons
Further down the State report, there is a paragraph about trafficking in persons.
100. Singapore remains committed to fighting trafficking in persons (TIP) and protecting victims under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Guided by the National Approach against TIP (2016-2026), Singapore adopts a “4P” strategy: (a) Prosecuting traffickers under the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act 2014; (b) Protecting victims by removing barriers to legal redress and assistance; (c) Preventing trafficking through public awareness; and (d) Partnering with stakeholders including INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and local civil society organisations providing victim care and support. All victims of alleged trafficking, regardless of nationality, are offered various forms of assistance such as food, shelter, language translation, psychological assistance, and temporary job placement. With these efforts, Singapore has maintained a Tier 1 ranking in the U.S. Department of State’s TIP Reports since 2020.
The problem with Singapore’s way of dealing with this issue is that Singapore continues to see trafficking through the lens of sexual exploitation. We have yet to know of a case where no element of sex was involved.
Yet, the International Labour Organisation has pointed out that forced non-sexual labour is three times as prevalent as forced sexual labour. See this ILO report and Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (also an ILO report). This suggests that Singapore may be framing the problem too narrowly such that we don’t recognise it as forced labour (a form of human trafficking) even when it is before our eyes.
A final reflection
Below is a reflection from Peter T, one of TWC2’s longstanding volunteers, on the way the government tries to contain the narrative, and the effect this has on our society.
When a society converges on a single way of thinking, it quietly loses the mechanisms that keep it honest. No one questions assumptions because the assumptions feel self-evident. No one challenges mistakes because the mistakes are invisible to those who made them. No one proposes genuinely new ideas because novelty itself becomes suspect.
The consequences compound over time. Decisions go unchallenged until they fail. Power goes unaccountable because accountability requires someone willing to say the uncomfortable thing. Innovation stalls not from lack of talent but from lack of permission to think differently. And when new challenges arrive — as they always do — a society that has forgotten how to disagree finds itself without the tools to adapt.
Diverse viewpoints are not merely a courtesy to minorities or a liberal abstraction. They are a functional requirement for any system that needs to correct itself. Open debate is how errors surface before they become crises. It is how policies get stress-tested before they cause harm. It is, in the end, how a society stays capable of learning.
These footnotes are from Singapore’s State report, not from TWC2.
19. Notably, under the Employment Act 1968, Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006, Work Injury Compensation Act 2019, Employment Agencies Act 1958, and WFA.
20 The PCP provides migrant workers with access to unlimited acute or chronic medical consultations and treatments (in-person and via telemedicine), as well as scheduled transportation between dormitories and medical centres within PCP zones.
21 Instead of covering only dormitories with at least 1,000 beds, all dormitories with seven or more beds are now subject to the regulations within the Foreign Employees Dormitories Act 2015, significantly increasing the number of regulated dormitories from about 50 to 1,500 facilities.
22 The improved dormitory standards will enhance liveability for migrant workers with more spacious rooms (≥4.2 sqm living space per resident) and in-room Wi-Fi coverage, whilst reducing the risk of infectious disease transmission through requirements such as a room occupancy cap of 12 residents, en-suite toilets and improved standards for isolation facilities