Foreign workers, the people who do all our dirty work because Singaporeans are too high-and-mighty to even consider doing it.

Under-appreciated and home sick, the least these heroes could have are a comfortable lodge to sleep in and nice food to tide them over their day, right?

Apparently not.

MWC Alerted To Lapses By Construction Companies

A group of Foreign workers had reached out to MWC with concerns regarding salary debts, poor housing conditions and unsatisfactory meal arrangements from three separate construction companies.

All three companies are managed by a Bangladeshi PR. According to Yahoo News, SJH Trading is one of the companies involved.

On August 13, just past midnight, the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) ‘visited’ two Geylang apartments – that house the maligned foreign workers – along Geylang Lorong 13 and 17.

They deemed the living conditions unacceptable, and I can totally see why.

Just look at the state of it! Cluttered and messy don’t even begin to describe it.

MWC came up with a list of reasons why the living conditions were deemed ‘unacceptable’.

Overcrowding

Under the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), each unit can only accommodate a maximum of eight occupants. The aforementioned units actually housed up to 30 workers at peak occupancy! That’s 22 more than the maximum amount! What’s this monstrosity?

Lack of proper bedding

Some workers had to sleep on the floor and in the corridors.

Bugs

Signs of cockroaches and bedbugs can be found on the walls of the dorms.

Disgusting.

Toilets and showers were filthy

According to MWC, the toilets, aside from being insufficient, were very dirty. As many as 13 people have to share one single toilet!

Food that’s pretty much expired

Breakfast was prepared 7 hours in advance for the workers, while lunch could stretch as far back as 12 hours.

According to recommendations by the National Environment Agency, ready-to-eat meals are best consumed within four hours from preparation.

Seriously, how are they going to work if they get sick?

What’s more, the foreign workers have to fork out $130 per month for these packets of inedible food.

That’s roughly a quarter of the average salary of a migrant worker!

Overloaded power sources

I don’t need to tell you this is a fire hazard, right?

This isn’t the first time that foreign workers were publicly mistreated too.

Back in 2015, workers were reportedly fed rotten-smelling curry, ‘hard’ fish with intact scales and plastic-tasting roti prata.

The employers got caterers to deliver both breakfast and lunch together to cut costs. The caterers, in an attempt to reduce prices themselves, ignore nutritional values altogether and feed the workers rice, curry and some meat. That’s all.

Luckily, initiatives by Hesed & Emet (cooks donated excess food for migrant workers), 45rice (supplies fortified rice to contractors) and Itsrainingraincoats (delivers excess Starbucks food to migrant workers) intervened to help the workers.

But that’s just treating the symptoms and not the cause.

At the end of the day, employers are still responsible for the migrant workers’ nutrition and basic living standards.

Be good bosses, and treat them like proper human beings. How would you feel if you’re the one having to share a toilet with 12 other people, and eat food way past the official consumption time?

But the most disgusting person, at least to me, is the Bangladeshi PR managing the construction companies.

He’s their countryman and he isn’t helping them. Okay, he is. He is helping them get exploited.

Pretty much mind-boggling when you can imagine them putting their trust in him, only to be treated in this way.

 

What about you? What do you think will force companies to take ownership over their slaves- sorry, I mean their employees?

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Read other articles about foreign workers here in Singapore:

• Bosses Are Getting Foreign Workers to Queue Up for Bak Kwa…Again
• These Horrifying Images of How 44 Workers Lived Together in a Geylang Flat Will Make You Cry

Feature Image: Migrant Workers’ Centre

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com