In the middle of March 2018, TWC2 got a call from a Sikh temple. They were sheltering a young woman who had come to them for help. We asked that she be sent to our office. Khushpreet (not her real name) was a first-time domestic worker, who arrived in Singapore just three weeks earlier in
By Tristan Powell-Odden, based on an interview in January 2018 Hossain Sabuj, like many other migrant workers, had a dream: To open a clothing store that re-sold American brands in Bangladesh, his home country. To raise the needed capital, he would work for a few years overseas. However, because of the exorbitant amounts of money
"The majority of respondents did not get enough to eat, regularly ate a limited variety of food, and often went to bed hungry in employers’ homes," reported Charlene Mohammed in her research paper publicly available at the University of Victoria website. The researcher is with the university's Department of Anthropology, and conducted her study in
By Aaron Chua, based on an interview in November 2017 "Hello," says Bhimol* to TWC2 volunteer Alex Au, just as Alex is arriving at The Cuff Road Project's meal station. "I come back," adds Bhimol. "Huh? Come back from where?" asks Alex. "[Last] Friday, I come back. New job." "Ah," says Alex, but before he
Shamim (above) recounts a meeting he had at another coffee shop By Troy Lee, based on two interviews in October 2017 Shamim paints a picture of how he got his latest job. In the second half of 2016, while he was happily in his previous job, "I meet his man, Basir, at a
On 5 December 2017, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) put up a note on their Facebook page accusing TWC2 of publishing an "inaccurate" account. This was in relation to the story we had posted on 12 October 2017 titled "Fraud committed using ministry letterhead". We stand by our story. We consider MOM's accusation against us
TWC2 volunteer discussing the news story with Bangladeshi workers at the Cuff Road Project In a promising development, the Ministry of Manpower has successfully prosecuted a Bangladeshi worker who acted as a job broker and who had pocketed some $30,900 in illicit profit. Roy Tapon Kumar pleaded guilty and was fined $30,000. This
In a landmark judgment released 1 November 2017, the High Court has ruled that the basic salary stated in the In-Principle Approval for a Work Permit (IPA) "would constitute prima facie evidence" of the correct basic salary rate, unless the employer can prove otherwise. The bar for proving otherwise was also set very high. This
Headline in Straits Times "Terry Tan-Soo I-Hse, 39, and Clarence Lim Jun Yao, 30, face a total of 442 charges for operating and using three sham companies to collect fees from more than 300 foreign job seekers for jobs that did not exist," said the Straits Times in a report 20 October 2017.
Sarowar (not his real name) approaches our help desk hesitantly. Despite being in his mid-thirties, he does not exude much self-confidence. Maybe it's because he knows his English is weak, and what he has to tell us is fairly complicated. However, it didn't take us long to grasp the nub of the problem: Someone had
