Seven workers recruited by the extended family of a husband-and-wife couple based in Singapore paid $9,000 each to get jobs jere. Big salaries promised, then stopped altogether.
A Bangladeshi welder paid $3,400 to get a shipyard job. No receipts given, he says. Then he had to memorise some lines to say in front of the camera, and to express deep gratitude.
A first-time construction worker from Bangladesh walks us through the months in which he prepared for a working life in Singapore. He spent 15 months in preparation. His working life was 6 months. We haven't even mentioned money!
A report looking at the laws (and gaps) impacting migrant workers in countries that are popular with Bangladeshi labour migrants. How do they compare with Singapore?
(Mis)information given to migrant workers before they decide to take up a job, inability to ask the right questions, reliance on agents can lay the ground for serious difficulties after they start work.
A recruiter goes onto Facebook to publicise his scheme to hire low-wage workers in violation of Singapore law; he seems to have nothing to fear.
Construction worker Domog faces a host of problems, of which his agent fee is not top of mind, but nonetheless we ask him to detail the payments he has had to make.
A curious case involving nearly 20 men approaching TWC2 within a week, all of whom had proper IPAs at MOM, but due to a mismatch of names compared with their passports, were refused Work Permits. Now left jobless.
Employers abused the Training Employment Pass scheme to hire cheap day labour; now hear it from the worker's perspective: distress, helplessness and financial disaster.
Our earlier article "Management executives" washing dishes got media attention. Then more informants came to us to tell us about the issue. It's much bigger than we had thought.
