Former president of Transient Workers Count Too, John Gee, spoke at the NUS Human Trafficking Conference on 10 January 2014. Others on the panel included Kandhavel Periyasamy (Joint Ops Director, Ministry of Manpower), Jolovan Wham (Workfair Singapore) and two students from Singapore Management University who recently did a project relating to trafficking. John's paper was titled: Migrants
Michelle Ngern with some delighted and grateful workers A lorry pulled up outside our free meals station on Friday evening, 27 December 2013. It had some eye-catching cargo, loaded as it was with colourful bags. What's going on? The bags were soon unloaded and distributed to workers registered with TWC2's Cuff Road Project.
A well-wisher slipped a $100 bill under front door over the weekend, together with a short note. Thank you very much. He signed the note and we have emailed him personally with our appreciation. We take this opportunity also to thank all our other donors, small and big, for their support through 2013. Most donations
Four first-year law students were attached to Transient Workers Count Too for three weeks in December 2013. The project we designed for them involved interviewing as many workers as they could on themes of their choice. However, these themes had to be drawn from the submission that TWC2 made to the Ministry of Manpower on
The panel comprised (L-R) Braema Mathi (Maruah), Russell Heng (TWC2), Siew Kum Hong (Maruah/moderator), Jolovan Wham (Workfair) and Vincent Law (Healthserve) TWC2 president Russell Heng spoke for the organisation at a public forum 'Foreign workers, justice and fairness', organised by human rights group Maruah on 23 December 2013. To the 100-strong audience, in
A street in Little India. Photo: Reuters/Ajlazeera Aljazeera quoted TWC2 in its story dated 18 December 2013 on the Little India riot (Singapore soul searching follows migrant riot, by Tom Benner and Satish Cheney). It quoted TWC2 president Russell Heng saying: "We believe that chronic maltreatment and disempowerment can lead to a sense
Ambulance set ablaze. Photo: Straits Times A Chinese-language magazine Life Week carried a feature article (its headline, translated into English: A rare riot exploded in Singapore) about issues surrounding migrant workers in Singapore, in the wake of the riot that occurred on Sunday 8 December 2013. Translated into English, key passages include: "The
Ten days after the riot in Little India, the police and Home Affairs Ministry announced that 28 foreign nationals will be charged and 53 deported. The 28 workers charged so far were "active participants" in the riot who committed violent acts, damaged property, defied police orders or incited others to do so. Although the Attorney-General's
Straits Times Managing Editor Han Fook Kwang penned a longish op-ed in the Sunday Times of 15 December 2013. While written in the wake of the riot that occurred a week earlier in Little India, the essay addresses wider concerns, calling for a more layered understanding of the men and women who come here to
TWC2's 2013 benefit event Lunch with Heart, coinciding with International Migrants Day, began a minute's silence in remembrance of Sakthivel Kumaravelu, the man who was killed in a bus accident last Sunday night (8 Dec 2013). Coincidentally, the event (at Apollo Banana Leaf Restaurant) was held but a stone's throw from where the incident took
