Imagine getting a high-paying job away from your love ones but you have to pay a large amount of money before you even arrive in that country.
Seems like a scam right?
However, this is the situation with most migrant workers in Singapore face when they work here.
Up till the explosion of COVID-19 cases in worker dormitories, we’ve mostly kept silent about the plight of migrant workers here in Singapore. We might see them everywhere, toiling day and night, but do we really notice them at all?
Some of us might even think that they are extremely privileged to be able to work here, but did you know that they come here already in debt?
As much as we pride ourselves on a corrupt-free government, the hurdles that migrant workers face just to get a job in Singapore says otherwise about the industry.
Imagine paying extra fees to land a job and how frustrating that would be.
Vice President of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), Mr Alex Au, puts it best: “We don’t do that to Singaporeans. Why should we be doing that to our migrant workers?”
Rampant Illegal Recruitment
Most of us have no clue about the sky-high fees that migrant and foreign domestic workers (FDWs) have to fork out to employment agencies and labour brokers who recruit them.
These expenses are not transparent in cost breakdowns and often costs months of a foreign workers’ salary.
According to The Straits Times, unlicensed agents and even some employers in Singapore are the ones making off with the money.
This is still a huge problem despite the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) implementing laws that ensure that up to a maximum of two months of a workers’ salary can be collected by official employment agencies.
Click here to watch a short video by CloseUp, an investigative video series by The Straits Times, to go in-depth about migrant workers’ experiences with such agencies.
MOM has been keeping an eye out for these illegal activities, penalising 84 people for illegal employment activities in 2019. This is a large improvement from figures between 2016 and 2018, which saw 150 people penalised yearly.
However, as the video stated, they are likely to be under-reported as those involved would likely lie low to avoid suspicion.
TWC2’s survey in 2019 had 50% of its 381 respondents paying an agent in Singapore.
Additionally, the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) mentioned that they had seen 20 to 30 cases annually for the past four to five years.
A staggering 800 cases of kickbacks, a form of bribery, had also been reported each year from 2014 to 2019.
The Straits Times added that employers may demand such payments from foreign workers upfront when they need to renew their work permits or when hiring them.
The Main Issue is the Opacity of the Job Market
Since the issue is so common, you might wonder why the government hasn’t been able to resolve it yet.
Mr Au specifically notes that “one key reason why this is happening in the opacity of the job market for migrants.”
There are no or little job openings for migrant workers that are listed on public platforms, so they are left with no choice but to consult middlemen who take their money.
Perhaps now you’ll understand why there has been a one-time fee of $3000 imposed on employers of Indonesian domestic helpers.
Future Solutions
CloseUp’s video mentions that MOM has been trying to curb the issue by making use of data analytics and machine learning to identify and detect unusual patterns in hiring practices.
The Straits Times also adds that officers from the MOM’s Forward Assurance and Support Teams were also regularly deployed to migrant workers’ dorms, helping in the early detection of employment offences.
Mr Au also suggested creating a centralised job portal in a language they understand so that information asymmetry and other unfair practices can be avoided.
This ensures a more transparent and convenient process.
However, MOM is concerned with the level of IT literacy across the migrant worker community.
MOM’s Director of well-being, Ms Jeanette Har, expressed that once the education and skill level of workers improve, an online portal would become more feasible.
Mr Eddy Lau, executive director of the Specialists Trade Alliance of Singapore, also highlighted that employers may not be receptive to online solutions as they may not have the capability to complete administrative procedures that are required when hiring a worker directly.
Despite all this, there must be a way to ensure that our migrant worker community is protected from such exploitation. We need to do better.
If you would like to volunteer your time and services to the migrant worker community, head over to TWC2, It’s Raining Raincoats or MWC to find out more.
Feature Image: AhXiong/ Shutterstock.com
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