By Keith Wong "For toilet, must go very far," is how Syful Md Siddiqur Rahman puts it. "How far is far?" I ask. "Go into the jungle?" "No jungle there," he explains. "Go other corner [of] site. Very big site." Syful is describing his living conditions and the sanitation arrangements he has to put up
By Lindene Cleary His first job didn't even last a year, losing out on unpaid salaries. His second job lasted barely a week, with him having to foot hospital bills. His personal finances are awash in red ink. We all suffer from accidents and bad luck from time to time. We miss the bus, we
By Ashley Frois We're barely under the eaves. Rain, like troubles, pours down mere inches from our seats. Everything is damp. Two seats away and drier, a fellow volunteer is interviewing another construction worker, Rahman Sadequr. That worker is speaking morosely of his money problems. My interviewee, Musfiqur (pictured above), is strangely upbeat. He too
By Seema Punwani "I cannot go back! If I go back I die. I die". Rahman keeps repeating in his broken English. His friend who is kindly acting as a translator tries to calm him down and entreats him to explain his predicament in detail. And so begins Rahman's story -- sadly not very unlike
By Meera Rajah Yati (not her real name) was promised that she would only have to wait in Batam for a week, before returning to Singapore to work with a new employer. The week became a month, and the month eventually turned into a year. Her previous employer had “scream[ed] and throw the things then
By Walter Wadiak As I sit down to do my first interview with a migrant worker, I’m looking for problems. Perhaps a story about an uncompensated injury — I have already seen plenty of these in my few visits here. Maybe I will find a man whose meagre salary has been either underpaid or not
By Fuxiong In the minutes following his three-metre fall, with his right shin and back in pain, Hossian Ramzan was carried by two "tamil man" on the instructions of a company supervisor to a shipping container, "to rest". "Then they lock the door." It worried him, but at first he gave them the benefit of
By Keith Wong "He do nothing," says Tariqul of his lawyer. Tariqul's medical assessment was "more than three months" ago, and he's been waiting to hear how many "points" (a measure of permanent disability) has been awarded for his leg injury. But his lawyer keeps on telling him to "wait, wait". That's the same answer
By Eitan After a year of volunteering, I can now spot a new guy at our soup kitchen with little difficulty. Unlike the 'regulars' who know the drill -- present a meal card, sign into the registration book, get a token -- and who also engage in some banter with TWC2 volunteers, the new ones
TWC2 volunteer Meera Rajah assisted a worker as he struggled to sort out his injury case after having things messed up by a law firm. This is Meera's detailed account of how the mess came about and what she had to do to help him. It shines a spotlight into an area not often discussed:
