Type of issue: accommodation
Hundreds of mostly unvaccinated workers came down with Covid-19 at a dormitory, but the scene was set well before by government policies or neglect.
The Ministry of Manpower announced new dormitory standards in September 2021. They're nearly all about control and surveillance, not comfort and wellbeing.
Covid-19 is not the only easily transmissible disease around. There's another and it's been killing more people for years. Yet, we didn't lock up our workers.
Far from justifying continued confinement of migrant workers in dorms, the cluster in Westlite Juniper shows how hollow the argument for confinement is.
A TWC2 volunteer went for a walk and came across a six-metre high hoarding. What is the ugliness that it is trying to hide from our view?
Ziaur and Miah work for a furniture manufacturer. Plush sofas, polished wood and the glint of brass surround them. What's there not to like?
A worker needed surgery but his employer would not pay for it despite having medical insurance. TWC2 got it done but before he could fully recover, more hurdles....
Triangulating from various figures published recently, the latest estimate for Singapore's dorm population is 275,000, of whom about 45% are fully vaccinated.
MOM plans 9 medical centres across Singapore geared to serving migrant workers, Making provision is good, but if employers stymie demand, healthcare goals may be elusive.
What's it like to arrive in Singapore, take your first meal here and be confronted with a crowded dorm? Jan Shak Mohabbat recounts his first memories here.
