By YC Loh Picture your workplace being five to seven metres underground and just a few metres wide, inside a one-and-a-half kilometre long drain under a road. The only source of ventilation is via mechanical means which prove inadequate. The air you breathe is saturated with dust particles, which is so stifling that after every ten

With additional reporting by Lee Kah Ghim (Nur E Alam) and Tan Ruoqi (Nur Mohammad) Some stories we hear from workers come in fragments and it is hard to fully understand what's going on with their cases. The stories are also so divergent that one wonders if there are consistent policies or processes in place

Soon after returning to his quarters after work on the evening of 23 February 2013, Shoriful's supervisor Ujjal showed up with a fellow worker Jakir in tow. With an aggressive tone of voice, Ujjal confronted Shoriful. "He say to me," reports Shoriful, "'Who your father in Singapore? He in MOM? He in police?' like that."

By YC Loh I winced as the young man showed me his mangled left forefinger -- an injury that may cause him and his family much financial hardship in the future. Sooriyamoorthy Senthilkumar arrived in Singapore from Tamil Nadu on 30 May 2012 to work as a gardener. Over the next few months, he worked

By Davina Tham When eighteen workers demanded the four months' salaries that were owed to them, their boss told them that they would only receive the money if they first signed a “condition paper”, says Mohammed Anisuzzaman (striped shirt). "But never show paper," he adds, indicating that they were upset to be asked to agree to