By Benjamin Wong Sahabuddin is in pain. Sahabuddin wants to get rid of the pain in his back and return home, but he cannot do so. He has been waiting for an operation since April – he had to forgo a scheduled operation date for July 23rd, because his employer has not signed his Letter

By Francesca Kusmayati says her Singaporean employer asked her time and again to go to the airport to pick up new domestic workers arriving from abroad. The Indonesian domestic worker, who goes by the name ‘Yati’ says she wasn’t in a position to say ‘no’ to her boss. “I didn’t have a choice because it

By Arjun Naidu One June evening, at a coffee shop along Rangoon Road, construction worker Md Ebrahim Miah faced a stark choice. “Boss very angry,” he says. “Say, ‘now I give you ten minutes, you go back [to Bangladesh] or no?’” Though he didn't know it at the time, his boss had already cancelled his

Continued from Part 3 This is the fourth of six parts: On return to Cotonou, the immigration officials didn’t need to stamp his passport, because Boomi hadn’t crossed immigration in Morocco. His luggage was lighter by one large bag, which presumably had gone on ahead to Montreal. There wasn’t much of value in the bag

7 am on Saturday, 7 July 2012. Two heavily-tattooed Chinese men walked into a company dormitory and demanded that Md Mustakim Khan pack his belongings right away. "They say to me, 'Today your flight go home'," recalled the worker from Bangladesh. He protested that he had only just been given a 19-day medical certificate for

By Benjamin Wong TWC2 treasurer Alex Au went down the line of men queuing up to get their meal coupons at the charity's soup kitchen. "Salary case or injury case?" he asked each man in turn. At random, he pulled out two men with salary cases, and asked them to sit with me to recount

Continued from part 2 This is the third of six parts: Rajeesh was the only one who knew anything about the city of Cotonou, Benin, and having gone out regularly he had picked up a working knowledge of French. At the beginning of their stay, Liady Furaimo’s African friends would shop for the Indian men,

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