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

By Rob Irene joins the queue to get her height measured. She is in a group of about 10 new arrivals from the Philippines packed into a training room to take the Ministry of Manpower’s mandatory Settling In Programme for domestic maids. Irene arrived from Manila last night and joins a group of about 20

By Suresh A ride sitting at the back of a truck in May this year was all it took to change the fate of Kashem Abul for worse.  He's been working in Singapore for a total of 13 years, albeit for different companies.  Only three months into his job with a new employer, Kashem was

By Lee Kah Ghim If you witnessed a man being punched in the eye by another, would you render assistance? What if the victim were a foreign worker, someone who belonged to a category of individuals Singaporeans so frequently look down upon; would you still help? It was an apparent ‘no’ for the people at

By Benjamin Wong Where do these out-of-job workers stay? This question is often asked. Hardly any of them are housed by their ex-employers, though in theory the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) expects employers to continue providing "upkeep and maintenance" until the worker is repatriated. But rare is the case when an employer actually does so.