Singapore migrant workers are still living in Covid lockdown
Image:
Publication Date:
September 24, 2021
Singapore migrant workers are still living in Covid lockdown
When Singapore was hit by the pandemic, migrant workers living in dormitories suffered the worst blow. As a result, migrant workers were put under intense lockdown and extreme restrictions were placed on their social life. Migrant workers’ restrictions were markedly different from the Singaporean ‘community’ (which, according to the government, means everyone except those living in a dormitory). Since the start of the pandemic, cases have dropped, but most migrant workers are not allowed to leave the dormitories except for going to work. Migrant workers in Singapore have faced one of the longest periods of Covid confinement compared to anyone anywhere else in the world.
Recently, the Singaporean government announced that they would allow a cohort of workers to go out of their dormitories in a “pilot scheme”. BBC spoke with Sharif, a migrant worker who came to Singapore in 2008, for comments. “I appreciate the experiment,” Sharif reported. “But I can’t express much joy at this news. Workers are only allowed to go to a certain place for a fixed time,” Sharif explained that it was painful for him to see others outside and meeting friends. In his spare time, Sharif is in his bunk bed, talking to family or writing.
Unlike migrant workers, no Singaporean was ever banned from leaving their home. Dr. Tan See Leng, Singapore’s Manpower Minister, explained that “The communal living and working conditions of migrant workers in dorms put them at higher risk of infection and the formation of large clusters.” Sharif does not see the restrictions as a form of protection, “All these people are expected to follow the social distancing rules, but they think we cannot do this also. When I see a law only for migrant workers I think, ‘Are we not human? Or are we animals? Do we not understand anything? Are we so uneducated?”
Men in dormitories do vital manual work in Singapore, they do most, if not all, of the construction work in the country. Despite their contributions, they live in cramped dormitories, sharing a room with up to 30 people and sharing their bathroom, cooking, and recreational space with hundreds more. These conditions unsurprisingly led to a slew of outbreaks at the beginning of the pandemic. As of 16 September, migrant workers accounted for 74% of all recorded cases, but they only make up 5% of Singapore’s total population.
Last year, some media outlets reported suicide attempts in the dormitories. The Ministry of Manpower declined to provide details on the situation, but responded that they were “always mindful and conscious of the need to better support the mental wellbeing of our migrant workers.”
External link:
Comments
Amelie.
This is such a tragic and unjust situation. In many ways it reveals a very deeply entrenched dual track system in Singapore, in which the social safety net for citizens is founded on a radically different set of rules for migrant workers. It is exacerbated during COVID times but it could be worth thinking about how it is so often normalized during other times in all sorts of ways people rarely take note of. An optimist might hope that the radical inequalites exposed by COVID times might lead towards enduring efforts to mitigate the harm done to migrants in Singapore. But I wonder if there is any evidence to support an optimist’s position. Pessimism seems more of an honest response…
Pages