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MIGRANT WORKERS IN #SINGAPORE DURING #COVID19—THREAD:
Since I've been tweeting about this so much I've decided that I should just put together a thread so everything is in one place for everyone. I have no idea how long this thread will go, but let's see, shall we?
Since I've been tweeting about this so much I've decided that I should just put together a thread so everything is in one place for everyone. I have no idea how long this thread will go, but let's see, shall we?
First off: who are these migrant workers? #Singapore has close to 1 million work permit holders, men and women. Here we're talking about male migrant workers who work on construction sites, shipyards, petrochemical refineries, etc., mostly from #India and #Bangladesh.
On 5 April, the #Singapore government first gazetted two dormitories—S11 Dormitory @ Punggol and Westlite Toh Guan dormitory—as isolation areas for 14 days. This meant that about 20,000 men were confined to their rooms. #COVID19
The next morning, @stcom published a story in which workers at S11 described overcrowded, unhygienic conditions in their dormitories, pointing out that safe distancing against #COVID19 just isn't possible. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/manpower/workers-describe-crowded-cramped-living-conditions
That story, plus general shock at the idea of essentially turning dorms into prisons, brought lots of public attention to the conditions in dorms. The Ministry of Manpower responded to say they're working to improve the situation: https://www.facebook.com/Josephine.LM.Teo/posts/3665600290180906?__tn__=-R
#COVID19 clusters have been found in multiple dormitories across #Singapore island. On 7 April, a third dormitory, Toh Guan dormitory, was declared an isolation area: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/covid-19-toh-guan-dormitory-declared-isolation-area-after-14-confirmed-cases-041042198.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw
This is all part of the #Singapore government's strategy to deal with #COVID19. They've classified locally transmitted cases into two categories: migrant workers, and cases within "our own community". https://www.sgpc.gov.sg/sgpcmedia/media_releases/mnd/speech/S-20200405-1/attachment/Remarks%20by%20Minister%20Lawrence%20Wong%20at%205%20Apr%20Press%20Conference%20on%20COVID-19.pdf
For my report for @AJEnglish, Dr Paul Tambyah told me that this policy of ring-fencing the dorms "is actually the Diamond Princess all over again." People outside the dorms might be protected, but those inside are vulnerable to getting #COVID19. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/singapore-migrant-workers-front-line-coronavirus-shutdown-200408014452630.html
Today, Sungei Tengah Lodge has become the fourth dormitory to be gazetted as an isolation area. Its website claims that it's #Singapore's largest dorm, which can accommodate up to 25,000 people. (I don't know if there are 25,000 workers living in it.) https://sg.news.yahoo.com/covid-19-sungei-tengah-lodge-declared-fourth-isolation-area-010323556.html?ncid=other_sgnewstele_ecrrmd5rec8
Migrant labour rights NGO @twc2sg has called for #COVID19 testing to be drastically ramped up so that workers can be moved out of the dorms, because reducing the density within dormitories is a matter of urgent concern: https://wethecitizens.substack.com/p/twc2-calls-for-increased-testing
Singaporeans have been stepping up to show solidarity and figure out how they can help. There's currently a petition aimed at raising public awareness and showing support for migrant workers: https://www.change.org/p/minister-josephine-teo-protect-our-migrant-workers-from-covid-19?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_21392087_en-GB%3Av3&recruiter=44442494&recruited_by_id=2d199010-6199-0130-2736-3c764e0455b2&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&share_bandit_exp=abi-21392087-en-GB&share_bandit_var=v2 #COVID19 #Singapore
A fundraiser for @healthservesg and @twc2sg launched by @plspreeti, @subhasmusic and friends yesterday surpassed their S$100k goal within a day: https://give.asia/campaign/preetipls-x-utopia-for-migrant-workers-ngos-433#/
If you'd like to donate to @home_migrantssg as well, here's the link: https://www.giving.sg/web/humanitarian-organisation-for-migration-economics #Singapore
If you'd like to donate to @home_migrantssg as well, here's the link: https://www.giving.sg/web/humanitarian-organisation-for-migration-economics #Singapore
The Ministry of Manpower says they are working continuously to improve cleanliness and food quality: https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2020/0408-8-april-2020---update-on-conditions-at-three-dormitories-gazetted-as-isolation-areas
These are photos of the meals that workers in one of the quarantined dorms have been provided today. They say it's much better than yesterday.
These are photos of the meals that workers in one of the quarantined dorms have been provided today. They say it's much better than yesterday.
I've been alerted to posts on Facebook that are accusing me and others of spreading fake news about the workers' conditions. I've responded:
Please also read this by @laavy_k on @acadsingapore: https://www.academia.sg/academic-views/protecting-the-precarious-covid-19-and-migrant-workers/ "We must use this current imperative for change to demand more lasting structural amendments that recognize our migrant workers are an integral part of building resilience as a nation."
To give more context to how low we're talking when we say "low wage migrant worker", @twc2sg's statement points out that while the govt will give employers S$100 per quarantined worker per day as an allowance, workers are usually paid $20 to $30 a day. http://twc2.org.sg/2020/04/08/covid-19-media-statement-8-april-2020/?fbclid=IwAR2Icpx9Lbd3WtKnGeqLv_8F8PQC3PLr_y5rWbwxP_C-3OdORI-58OtkMXE
. @twc2sg recommends that at least 70% of the S$100 allowance goes to the workers, and to guard against situations where "the more scrooge-like the employer is and the more depressed his average salary per worker is, the more he will benefit from the government’s support."
Thank you to everyone, in #Singapore or out, Singaporean or not, who contributed to these efforts. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sporeans-give-s345000-just-days-help-foreign-workers-after-covid-19-cases-spike
#Singapore hit another new high (breaking yesterday’s record) of 287 new cases today. 219 of them are migrant workers. The armed forces and police have been mobilised as part of a separate task force to address #COVID19 among migrant workers. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/covid-19-record-287-new-cases-spore-219-infections-linked-dorms-foreign-workers-who-had-visited?cid=telegram_tg-single_social-free_26012019_today
The government does seem to be taking @twc2sg’s advice to move workers who are well out and reduce density in dorms. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/covid-19-record-287-new-cases-spore-219-infections-linked-dorms-foreign-workers-who-had-visited?cid=telegram_tg-single_social-free_26012019_today
I’m disturbed by this framing of “two separate infections”: there’s only one #COVID19, and it spread among workers ‘cos of the crowded conditions they live in. I worry this framing will further stigmatise workers as carriers and spreaders of the virus. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/covid-19-record-287-new-cases-spore-219-infections-linked-dorms-foreign-workers-who-had-visited?cid=telegram_tg-single_social-free_26012019_today
. @home_migrantssg has set up a specific fundraiser to help them support migrant workers through #COVID19: https://www.giving.sg/humanitarian-organisation-for-migration-economics/covid19andbeyond
Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said that if he'd known that #COVID19 would explode in big clusters in dorms, he would have done things differently. https://mothership.sg/2020/04/lawrence-wong-do-things-differently-foreign-workers/
Migrant rights groups have been sounding the alarm for a long time. When I interviewed Luke Tan of @home_migrantssg earlier this week, he said, "It doesn't need to take a pandemic to expose these issues. Any outbreak of TB or any other contagious virus will have the same effect."
On 23 March, before the big clusters exploded this month, @twc2sg wrote a forum letter to @STcom warning about precisely this: "The risk of a new cluster among this group remains undeniable." http://twc2.org.sg/2020/03/23/straits-times-forum-employers-practices-leave-foreign-workers-vulnerable-to-infection/
A fifth dormitory has been declared an isolation area. Tampines Dormitory has a total of 38 confirmed #COVID19 cases so far. Yesterday 2 blocks at Sungei Tengah Dormitory were gazetted—now the other 8 have been too. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-coronavirus-tampines-dormitory-isolation-area-12629490
Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong says #Singapore is dealing with "two separate infections" of #COVID19: one among the migrant worker population (exploding) and one among the local population (stable for now). But migrant workers *are* part of the local population.
How about... workers should not be transported ferried in the back of lorries? https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coronavirus-workers-ferried-in-back-of-lorries-must-sit-with-1m-safe-distance-say-mom-lta?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=sttw&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1586491061
Again, this issue of workers being crowded into the back of lorries has been raised *repeatedly* over the years by migrant rights groups as a hazard: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/migrant-workers-group-calls-for-workers-to-be-ferried-in-buses-not-lorries
Again, this issue of workers being crowded into the back of lorries has been raised *repeatedly* over the years by migrant rights groups as a hazard: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/migrant-workers-group-calls-for-workers-to-be-ferried-in-buses-not-lorries
A thread on how to help: https://twitter.com/sgclimaterally/status/1248470382270529537
The reason migrant rights groups have said that it's a matter of urgency that density is reduced in the dormitories is because it's just not possible to really do safe distancing right now, even in dorms that have been quarantined. The government is now working on this. #COVID19
I've been sent/asked multiple times about a video of migrant workers in what appears to be an empty multi-storey car park, where bunk beds have been set up. I'm not sharing that video because I haven't been able to verify it, nor do I know the context of what's happening there.
Give them a living wage, good accommodation, and the right to unionise (properly, not NTUC-ly) https://twitter.com/historyogi/status/1248546364276879360?s=21 https://twitter.com/historyogi/status/1248546364276879360
A few days ago someone (on Twitter? FB?) suggested reading the Google Maps reviews of dormitories but I was too overwhelmed to do it right then. Just started looking through the reviews of S11 Dormitory.
None of these reviews are verified, of course, so take them with a pinch of salt. But they do suggest a variation of opinions and views about the dorms. These are Google Maps reviews of Westlite Toh Guan.
Today's #wethecitizens newsletter contains a sum up of quite a lot of the points raised in this thread, so some of you might find it handy as a one-stop shop that you can forward to/share with family and friends: https://wethecitizens.substack.com/p/covid-19-hits-our-migrant-workers
Following up on this tweet: https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1248513448927023110 @SingaporeHDB says healthy workers are being put up in completed multi-storey car parks and unused void decks of completed and safe structures. Manpower minister Josephine Teo also acknowledges the video: https://www.facebook.com/Josephine.LM.Teo/posts/3681539381920330
There is a bit of a jump in manpower minister Josephine Teo's comments: she acknowledges that the circulated video was "disturbing", and that her officers looked into it, but then goes straight to referencing HDB's post, which shows quite different conditions from the video.
Given that the conditions in the circulated video look quite different from what HDB says it should be, what did MOM and HDB find when they looked into that video? What has been done for the men there now?
The focus is mainly on the men at the moment since they’re the ones in the dorms, but during this partial lockdown, migrant domestic workers have also been told to stay in on their days off. For many this will probably mean they aren’t getting days off. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coronavirus-foreign-domestic-workers-must-stay-home-on-rest-day-says-mom
There have been voices blaming migrant workers for not maintaining hygiene in their own dormitories. @twc2sg cuts through this and points out the structural issues at play: http://twc2.org.sg/2020/04/11/in-defence-of-squalor/
These photos in @twc2sg's post were taken in Sungei Tengah Lodge on 11 April. While MOM says cleaning has been stepped up (read: https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2020/0411-food-distribution-cleanliness-and-hygiene-standards-at-stl-and-td-stabilised-within-48-hours), there's a lack of bins outside rooms for men to put their trash into when they're done eating, and no soap in the washrooms.
I understand the trash has been cleaned up, probably as part of the three-times-daily clean-up MOM mentioned in their statement ( https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2020/0411-food-distribution-cleanliness-and-hygiene-standards-at-stl-and-td-stabilised-within-48-hours). But as @twc2sg points out, this means men were told to eat in their rooms w/o immediate refuse collection or bins organised.
Two more dormitories have been added to the list of gazetted isolation areas, meaning thousands more men are going to be confined to their rooms: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-coronavirus-acacia-cochrane-dormitory-isolation-moh-12634902?cid=telegram_cna_social_28112017_cna #COVID19 #Singapore #migrantworkers
Here are the numbers of men in each gazetted dorm afaik:
S11
13,000
Westlite Toh Guan6,800
Toh Guan Dormitory4,500
Sungei Tengah Lodge24,000
Tampines Dormitory2,000
Cochrane Lodge 1accommodation capacity 5,000
Acacia Lodge??? for now
S11
13,000Westlite Toh Guan
6,800Toh Guan Dormitory
4,500Sungei Tengah Lodge
24,000Tampines Dormitory
2,000Cochrane Lodge 1
accommodation capacity 5,000Acacia Lodge
??? for now
How the other half lives: @tocsg points out that some of these dorms are run by companies linked to grassroots leaders w/ People's Association (widely seen in #Singapore as close to the PAP). And some of these guys have Sentosa homes of great splendour: https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2020/04/11/wife-of-grassroots-leader-in-workers-dorm-business-shows-their-sentosa-weekend-party-home-to-media/
This is a chart that Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong shared on Facebook. To give an idea of the scale of the outbreak among migrant workers, note the difference in y-axis for the last graph.
Migrant workers are being moved out to empty HDB flats, car parks, floating lodgings. This might be necessary given the sheer number of people who should be moved. But there hasn’t been any serious talk about housing them in the empty hotels they built.
This floating accommodation seems okay, much better than the car parks. Hopefully we will find out more about how the actual relocation goes moving forward: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/transport-minister-khaw-boon-wan-visits-floating-lodgings-foreign-workers
That said, it is still disturbing that migrant workers are treated so differently and so separate from the rest of the population. https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1249563936988397570?s=21 https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1249563936988397570
It’s also a matter of stress and psychological impact if workers are made to feel like they are policed and imprisoned at an already stressful time. Floating dorms, car parks, empty flats are all being employed to reduce density but people also need to be treated like people.
Don't forget that migrant workers are also on Facebook! https://twitter.com/pauriahcarey/status/1249723078566801408?s=20
The vast majority of newly-confirmed
#COVID19 cases reported today ( #Singapore's highest yet) are migrant workers. https://twitter.com/ChannelNewsAsia/status/1249727456543531009?s=20
#COVID19 cases reported today ( #Singapore's highest yet) are migrant workers. https://twitter.com/ChannelNewsAsia/status/1249727456543531009?s=20
An eighth dorm quarantined. https://cna.asia/2y8s6UG
The government has been reluctant to say that #Singapore is going on lockdown, preferring to call it a circuit breaker, but all workers in 43 purpose-built dorms are going on lockdown: https://yhoo.it/3a8F5CM
The Ministry of Manpower revoked the work passes of 24 workers for breaching #COVID19 circuit breaker measures. They have also been banned from returning to #Singapore. @home_migrantssg says this is disproportionate: https://www.home.org.sg/statements/2020/4/14/circuit-breaker-violations-revoking-work-passes-is-harsh-and-disproportionate
A report in @STcom today following up on the govt announcing safe distancing rules while workers are transported to and from work in the backs of lorries. MOM carrying out checks, measuring space between men. #COVID19 #Singapore
This seems really labour intensive at a time when the ministry is already stretched to its limits trying to grapple with the problem. Why not just make employers transport workers in buses, with seats marked out for safe distancing? https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1250322140735262721
For those of us who are following the migrant worker issue closely, I feel like the mood has turned from “ #Singapore is doing pretty good huh, everyone says so” to “oh God this is a humanitarian crisis” in the span of just a week. https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1250442813138821123?s=21 https://twitter.com/kixes/status/1250442813138821123
Analysts think that after #COVID19 regulations will probably be tightened further. (As. They. Should.)
But wow, it hadn’t fully sunk in before how lucrative a business running a dormitory in #Singapore is. https://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/Headlines/covid-19-will-shake-up-dorm-market-for-workers-analysts
But wow, it hadn’t fully sunk in before how lucrative a business running a dormitory in #Singapore is. https://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/Headlines/covid-19-will-shake-up-dorm-market-for-workers-analysts
Testing everyone is going to be really hard. From the beginning of #COVID19 in #Singapore till now we have tested close to 50k people. But there are 200,000 men in the purpose-built dorms alone, even before factoring in factory converted dorms and others. https://twitter.com/kusy03915146/status/1250469081699864576?s=21 https://twitter.com/KuSY03915146/status/1250469081699864576
Adding one more dormitory to the gazetted list: https://yhoo.it/2VynOOo
