As COVID19 clusters see 4 worker dorms locked down, veteran journalist PN Balji argues that the treatment of foreign workers is a longstanding issue in Singapore
SINGAPORE — How quickly fortunes can turn. It was only a few weeks ago that Singapore was smelling like roses with the country being praised, both here and abroad, for its efficient handling of the COVID-19 crisis. Today, the same government is struggling to contain the quick spread of the virus as dormitories for migrant workers open up a new battlefront.
While the urgency of fighting the pandemic cannot be understated, recent events have brought up a longstanding issue: our attitude towards migrant workers. Over many years, their treatment by employers has been extensively reported by media and NGOs. But even horrendous acts against them did not force the authorities to act in a holistic way.
While the working and living conditions of foreign workers have greatly improved since, I’m not sure if Manpower Minister Josephine Teo remembers this story. It was over two decades ago and she was then an officer at the Economic Development Board. By the time she was appointed to head MOM two years ago, Bashar had become a statistic to be filed away on some official’s shelf.
Up to 49,300 quarantinedThese workers’ wretched living conditions were brought out into the open again when the government imposed a clampdown on four dormitories after infection clusters emerged there. The Straits Times’ plucky reporter Joyce Lim, jumped on to the story and exposed the horrid living conditions: cramped dormitories, choked toilets and filthy living spaces.
Ironically, it has taken an unprecedented challenge in the shape of the pandemic to get the authorities to seriously address living conditions in the dormitories, which now pose an imminent threat to the health of both foreign workers and Singaporeans.One, Singaporeans must not only open their wallets, but also their hearts to foreign workers. This is unlikely to happen as the issue is not a hot topic for them.
But it looks like the 4G leadership has lost the plot on this. Now they have invited Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean, who was in charge of ministries that are known to take tough measures, to oversee the migrant worker issue.
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