By Arjun Naidu Mechanic Devadass Ganesamoorthy was having his lunch break when five or six Ministry of Manpower (MOM) officers raided the workshop in June. “They ask, 'Where permit?' and I give permit.” But although Devadass was a mechanic, he was listed as 'musician' on his work permit. “So they said, 'Eh you musician, what
By Benjamin Wong To the question 'Are you married?', Mohsin Howlander pauses, pursing his lips. “My wife, she die already,” he replies, fighting back tears. “Oh dear, how did that happen?” your TWC2 volunteer asks him. He switches from grief to anger, spitting out the words like a curse: “She die because of my faarker
In his nine months since arriving in Singapore, Habibur (not his real name) has been scolded – verbally and physically – threatened with his life, exploited, beaten and forced to lie to the MOM. As a teacher in his native Bangladesh, Habibur could expect, on top of regular work, a modicum of respect. He arrived in Singapore
Continued from part 1. This is the second of six parts: Looking forward to a bright new future, Sellathurai Boominathan embarked on a journey, early January 2011, that should eventually take him to Canada. He had heard that work there would pay C$10.00 (S$12.50) per hour. He was aware however that the plan required him
We heard a faint knock at the door around 2pm on Saturday afternoon as I tapped away on my laptop; I was here in TWC2's office to edit some photos for the website. Mr Ho, an older Singaporean, looked like he had stumbled upon the wrong place: Golden Mile Complex with its network of offices
‘Signing on the dotted line: examining operational indicators of trafficking’ is a two part article written by TWC2’s immediate past president, John Gee, for the website of The Trafficking Research Project (TTRP), and published in June and July 2012. The first part of the article is on contract abuse, where companies have tried to impose
I got a call last week from a maid who works in Little India named Josie. She approached me in my capacity as a writer for TWC2 as she wanted to share her story. Josie, who is from Abra province in the Philippines and heralds from a family of seven, has worked in Singapore since
UPDATE:As at 5 p.m. on Monday, 23 July 2012, total donations exceeded $23,000. DONATION WINDOW WILL CLOSE ON FRIDAY, 27 July 2012 at 23:59h. This should allow sufficient time for those interested to help to do so. As agreed with the lead initiator of this appeal, Benjamin Lee aka Mr Miyagi, should there be any
It by no means applies to all migrants we talk to at TWC2, but anger simmers very close to the surface in some of the men we encounter. Not all. Most are unbelievably patient and humble while waiting for the slow, ponderous wheels of bureaucracy to turn. But Akkabar isn’t one of those men. I
The four young volunteers shown above were with TWC2 social worker Kenneth Soh doing outreach to Chinese workers last Sunday. Chloe has been with the team for a while but the other three are new. It was at first a wet day, but by the afternoon, the sun had come out, and "it was hot
