Right before our noses, illegal job agents operate with impunity in Singapore itself, raking in loads of money. Employers offering jobs through these recruiters don't smell too clean either.
To fund the required recruitment fee for his job, Habibur took a loan from Brac Bank. Even from the beginning, the repayment demands looked tight. Then the unexpected happened.
Nahid's first job turned out relatively well, but he hadn't gone home to see his family in five years. So he resigned and, soon after, had to look for another job.
Kamrul and Majumder share something important: both their illegal recruiters were based here in Singapore. In Majumder's case, an additional payment was demanded by someone in the company.
Shafiqul borrowed 200,000 taka from a bank to finance his recruitment cost. He now owes 250,000.
We ask Chokder to tally how much he paid job agents through the three jobs he's had. If not for these hefty fees, he would have savings to support his family after his injury.
A short explainer about how corrupted the recruitment system has become for migrant workers and the two key measures needed to reform the eco-system.
$2,000 is cheap as far as recruiters' fees go, but just as easily lost. Razzak's story is unfortunately as common as dirty money in the migrant labour market.
Carpenter Babul had had good experiences with Singaporean bosses, unlike employers from India or Bangladesh, whom he felt didn't care for their employees. A nice lady boss came along and offered him a job...
A hopeful guy from India contacted TWC2 by WhatsApp to ask if the job offer he had in hand was real. It didn't take us long to tell him the bad news.
