By Kay Tan The first thing you notice about Aktar is his wide sunny smile. And then your gaze is drawn to the strange stiff glove on his right hand. When you quiz him about it, the sunny smile slowly falls away, and his eyes film with tears. Recounting the accident brings back all the
On the day before his departure, Mohammed Dulal Harunur Rashid brought a little self-made poster to Transient Workers Count Too's office. It said "I and my family never forget TWC.TOO . . . Long live TWC.TOO. Every social worker and associate." It was one of those touching moments when everything we did seemed worthwhile. It
How do migrant workers see the spaces, people and activities around them? What is significant to them? A fascinating exhibition will let you in on the secret. Migrant Encounters is the brainchild of Ye Junjia ("Jia"), and brought to fruition with the help of her friends Tai Shuxia and Jessie Koh. Supported by the Max
By Nigel Lin I offer Pitchai a handshake – it is my first time interviewing a foreign worker and hey, I thought it’d be polite to do so. He takes it up, albeit rather weakly. That prompts my first question. “Is your right arm okay?” “Very pain when I moving the hand,” is all I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0sbZnCf2I Many people will have seen the above Youtube video that circulated a few months earlier. It was made by Beyond the Border, Behind the Men, a project that celebrates the otherwise anonymous and invisible Bangladeshi migrant workers in our midst. Now the BTBBTM music team is having their first concert, The Exchange, on the
By Chow Zhi Ying Safiulla told the law firm that he wanted to discharge them from representing him. He was shocked to be told in return that he had to pay $1,000 before they would issue a discharge letter. Not having this kind of money, he is now stuck. But why did he need to
When a Transient Workers Count Too volunteer met domestic workers of the Filipino Family Network and the Indonesian Family Network in June and said, ‘We were thinking about what we should do for International Migrants’ Day this year...’, there was no discussion. Immediately, the workers said that they’d like to have a sports day. So
Introduction by Alex Au: Even as Debbie Fordyce was explaining to a group of students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) the problem of homelessness and lack of social space for foreign workers, ten to twelve uniformed officers swept into the same area to shoo away men resting in the shaded space. It was
A report in the Business Times, 24 April 2012, highlighted the gradual drying up of Singapore's usual sources of foreign blue-collar workers. The story, headlined "S'pore magnet losing its foreign worker pull" by Cai Haoxiang is archived in Asia One. The traditional source of unskilled labour, Malaysia, dried up years ago. But in recent years
By Benjamin Wong Approaching Zakir Hossain, one immediately notices the giant white cast that covers his left forearm. What comes to mind are the stories, the turn of events so commonly heard: an accident occurs, a worker gets injured, his work permit gets cut, he isn't able to get an operation, and maybe is even
