By Rahul Advani Even before the start of my interview with Al Amin Kuddus, 24, he looked uncomfortable. “I have a boil under my arm” he tells me. “The pain is so strong I cannot even sleep”. As I ask him to lift his arm, he winces, hissing deeply at the pain. How he developed

Hossain is angry. He is among a group of Bangledeshi workers scammed out of around S$250,000 by an elaborate ruse to lure desperate migrants into overseas jobs that don’t exist. It’s happened many times before. A group of more than 50 Bangledeshi workers – Hossain among them – were duped into handing over instalments of

It's never easy sitting across a table from someone who is distraught. As a non-profit organisation, we do not have legal powers to help; we can only assist with advice and by communicating with the rightful authorities on a worker's  behalf, but in this case, Tian Jingjing's tale was that she had tried those avenues

By Rahul Advani Sitting across the table, I was immediately struck by his fresh faced, boyish features and cheery smile. It was difficult to comprehend how someone who looked so young could endure the difficult, physically-demanding life of a manual worker. What struck me even more though, was the level of maturity he displayed in

One by one, the men came through the door of the Ministry of Manpower until they were 46. Then their employer, whose name the men recalled as Farouk, stood up to address them. As recalled by Shahbas, "Boss he said, afterwards talking MOM, no talking alibaba." In plain English: The boss told us, 'Afterwards, when

Samad Hossain didn't think it was a critical problem when, one year into his job as a construction worker, his employer began deducting $300 a month from his earnings. It was explained to him that the deductions, spread over four months (October 2010 to January 2011) and totalling $1,000 (only $100 was deducted at the

(It doesn't start until 30 seconds in) Coming across this beautiful video, your correspondent was reminded of Jitu, whose story is here at Left for dead, Jitu finds his feet again -- except that that was written before another piece of bad news hit. Early November 2011, almost exactly a year after the accident that

Among the one million medical tourists spending some one billion dollars on medical services this year was the Bangladeshi Minister of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment. His ministry was established in December 2001 for the purpose of ensuring the welfare of the expatriate workers and the enhancement of the overseas employment. The minister’s visit was

By Jason Shut the blog down; it's illegal – so went opponents of SingaporeMaid.blogspot.com. The controversy erupted when the Straits Times reported on the blog, run by a full-time mother who goes by the online moniker ‘Tamarind’. The blog was meant for netizens to share negative experiences they have had with their domestic helpers. Argued