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The perfect job
Abul Kalam thought he had found the perfect job, one that he could arrange directly with the employer and that didn’t require him to deal with an agent or recruiter in Bangladesh. Most Bangladeshi workers are recruited by a friend or acquaintance who takes $8,000 to $10,000 to line up
Tired of waiting
Unlike other stories at this site, 29-year-old Madasamy Muniyandi's story is not one of grievous injustice. He has no major beef with his employer though he suffered a bad accident that has left him with a permanent impairment. But he's tired of waiting. The process is very slow. As an
Time-lapse: a typical evening at our Cuff Road Project
TWC2.org.sg from benjamin broekema on Vimeo. Benjamin Broekema spent nearly three hours on his feet making the above time-lapse video at Isthana Restaurant, one of the two places where Transient Workers Count Too operate our daily free meals programme for out-of-work migrant workers. At the start of the video, while
How low can a salary go?
Shobus never would have agreed to a job that promised only $9 a day. But of course that’s not what he was promised before he came. He was told that he would earn $800 to $900 a month for working 8:00am to 7:00pm. He dreamed of how much he would
Eighteen men, two windows
By the time a foreign worker comes to Transient Workers Count Too seeking help, he most likely would have been kicked out of company-provided accommodation. For many of the men we help, shelter is a cramped, stuffy room in tenement housing -- that's if they are lucky enough or rich
Not sent to a doctor for one month after the accident, further treatment still blocked by employer
By Rahul Advani Even before the start of my interview with Al Amin Kuddus, 24, he looked uncomfortable. “I have a boil under my arm” he tells me. “The pain is so strong I cannot even sleep”. As I ask him to lift his arm, he winces, hissing deeply at
Lured into $250,000 Canadian ghost job scam
Hossain is angry. He is among a group of Bangledeshi workers scammed out of around S$250,000 by an elaborate ruse to lure desperate migrants into overseas jobs that don’t exist. It’s happened many times before. A group of more than 50 Bangledeshi workers – Hossain among them – were duped
Serial disappearance
It's never easy sitting across a table from someone who is distraught. As a non-profit organisation, we do not have legal powers to help; we can only assist with advice and by communicating with the rightful authorities on a worker's behalf, but in this case, Tian Jingjing's tale was that
Boss wouldn’t pay for his operation
By Rahul Advani Sitting across the table, I was immediately struck by his fresh faced, boyish features and cheery smile. It was difficult to comprehend how someone who looked so young could endure the difficult, physically-demanding life of a manual worker. What struck me even more though, was the level
Another house of cards collapses
One by one, the men came through the door of the Ministry of Manpower until they were 46. Then their employer, whose name the men recalled as Farouk, stood up to address them. As recalled by Shahbas, "Boss he said, afterwards talking MOM, no talking alibaba." In plain English: The