Interesting updates related to migrant worker issues
A former director of a ship manning agency has been charged in a Filipino court with human trafficking and illegal recruitment, the Sunday Times reported on 21 September 2014. However, he appears to be still in Singapore, and there is no extradition treaty between Singapore and the Philippines. Victor Lim, formerly of Step Up Marine
In a move with little warning, the government of Myanmar (Burma) has imposed a five-month ban on its citizens coming to Singapore for domestic work. This was reported in the Straits Times (13 September 2014). The ban was reportedly due to concerns over ill-treatment and abuse, the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF) said. An official
Manpower minister Tan Chuan-jin told parliament through a written reply that about 70,000 workers (presumably male construction workers) live in temporary housing located at construction sites. Most foreign workers live in purpose-built dormitories but around 20 per cent - or 70,000 - live on construction sites. The figures were released on Tuesday in a written
Alleged mistreatment by employers have led to riots in Malaysia by foreign workers, various news sources are reporting. Most serious was what happened on Tuesday night (26 August 2014) in the Malaysian state of Johor. As reported by Malaysian newspaper The Star: Some 800 workers of a factory here set fire to the building Tuesday
Tay Li Nah, 39, an employer of a domestic worker, was sentenced to four weeks' imprisonment after pleading guilty to kicking Saedatun Fandilah repeatedly on her buttocks, thighs and abdomen at about 12.30am on 5 Feb 2013. This was reported in the Straits Times, 27 August 2014. Five hours later, Saedatun, in a bid to escape, removed
The Straits Times recently carried a story about foreign worker accommodation. Unfortunately, it didn't get to the heart of the matter: the way government policies affect cost and affordability considerations. The newspaper's 19 August 2014 story spoke about the rising number of vacancies at purpose-built dormitories. There are about 5,000 vacancies, said the story, though
Buried within a press release by the Ministry of Manpower dated 19 June 2014, and titled Computer firm director charged for false declaration of salaries, was a paragraph pertaining to the Woolim case that TWC2 highlighted in earlier articles. The paragraph provides a conclusion to the case, saying: More recently on 17 June 2014, Woolim
"COI into Little India riot suggests sensible and practical ways to improve their lives " says the subheader to a column by journalist Radha Basu in the Sunday Times of 6 July 2014. The article focussed on the recommendations contained in the Report of the Committee of Inquiry (into the recent riot) to improve the situation
Recommended by the Committee of Inquiry (COI) into the Little India riot in its report released on Monday, 30 June 2014: the possibility of making services and amenities available to workers outside of areas prone to congregation i.e. Little India, thereby reducing possibilities of problematic events altogether. The COI stance, as reported in TODAY (4
Released yesterday by the Manpower Ministry, new statistics revealed a jump in construction-related deaths this year – 17 in the first half, with eight cases in January alone, up from 11 in the same period last year. Major injury cases also leaped 15 percent this period from last year to 71 cases. TODAY reported (Building
