Ugly Truth About Singapore’s Treatment Of Migrant Workers
SINGAPORE — Seventeen
men have been confined for the past 20 days in a cluttered room about one-third
the size of an average tennis court. The men, like hundreds of other migrant
workers living in Kian Teck Crescent dormitory in the far western reaches of
Singapore, are only permitted to leave to use the communal toilet or shower
facilities down the hall. Food is delivered to them twice a day, left at the
stairwell for them to collect. There is no Wi-Fi access and no space to
exercise or engage in recreational activities.
One of them, a
29-year-old construction worker from India who isn’t revealing his real name in
this article to protect his ability to work, said most of the men in his room
have spent the past few weeks sleeping their days away — only stirring when
they hear the ambulances arrive, which lately has been four or five times a
day, to take their friends and co-workers to hospitals and isolation facilities
to be tested and treated for COVID-19.
“Staying here is very
stressful,” the worker said over the phone on Wednesday, a day after nine of
his neighbors were taken away for testing. “Every day, there are more people
getting sick. We keep thinking, maybe it will be passed to us also. We are very
worried.” ....
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/covid-19-surge-singapore-treatment-of-migrant-workers_in_5ea3ab09c5b6d376358fd3b3?utm_hp_ref=in-homepagePratap Bhanu Mehta: Migrant labour and the unemployed will be demanding their rights, not our mercy
