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.

This year alone, Transient Workers Count Too came across three workers who had sustained head injuries. In dealing with the emergency, a part of their skulls had to be removed. With only soft skin covering the unprotected part of the brain, they were left exposed to future injuries. These three stories relate to the commentary,

Shah Ali didn't have much choice when his one-year work permit came to an end. Having paid an employment agent about S$4,400 to get this job for him a year ago, he had still not recovered the investment. If he didn't get his work permit renewed and continued in the job, he would be in

Soman Murugappan worked hard for his diploma in electrical and electronics engineering, specialising in instrumentation and control. If he's lucky, he'll be getting a job as a cleaner. The 26-year-old from Tamil Nadu, India, came to Singapore in early April 2012. He had been given a job with an airconditioning piping company. Things went smoothly

By Nasreen Ramnath The steel beam fell away beneath his feet, and he was suddenly swinging like a pendulum in mid air. Holding on for dear life to a steel cable, he hung suspended 10 meters above a yawning pit. Terrified, he looked down and immediately shut his eyes to keep out the sight of

By Suresh Little did Bitdut Chandra know that he would have to endure a second crisis after the first. In March this year, the lanky 27-year-old from Dhaka seriously injured his right leg while at work. Six months on, he is still undergoing treatment at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and walks with a slight limp. His

At the end of a work shift, while waiting for the rest of the crew to assemble their things and board the company lorry, the driver had a brief word with Arif Hossain. He said he believed that Arif's employer had gone bankrupt, and suggested that Arif should check the status of his work permit.

By Lee Kah Ghim “I want more working.” Sitting with me is Nazmul Hossain, 27, a very fit young man raring to take on more jobs just so that he can feed his family of three back home in Bangladesh. “I want more working. I no money send back to family," he says of his