As Singapore’s COVID-19 cases increase rapidly in the last several weeks, the Government has been putting in place various measures to stem the spread of the virus. On 7 April, the Government implemented “circuit breaker” measures which include closing schools and non-essential businesses, prohibiting social gathering and urging Singaporeans to stay at home and only leave their houses when they need to get essential supplies or medical treatment.
The circuit breaker period was expected to last for a month, before the Government decided to extend it till 1 June as the number of cases continued to soar.
As of 14 May, the total number of infections in Singapore stands at 26,098. Of these cases, 23,758 are among migrant workers living in dormitories, which means the largest chunk of infections are reported among these workers.
Given the high number of COVID-19 cases among workers in dormitories, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has intensified its inspections at purpose-built dormitories and factory-converted dormitories to ensure that safe distancing measures are adhered to.
If that’s not all, the checks are also carried out to make sure the living conditions at these dorms are acceptable and good hygiene is maintained.
However, things are not looking very favourable for migrant workers who are living outside of these dorms, especially in shop-houses.
According to Luke Tan, a casework manager at Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), one of the few NGOs working for migrant worker rights, many migrant workers are now forced to move to the street after MOM found out that they live in rooms that are overly-crowded.
“Workers are telling us that MOM has been inspecting shop-houses that are housing foreign workers for safe-distance issue. Many of the workers are told to move out as the inspector found the room too cramped,” Mr Tan wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday (14 May).
He added that while the NGO appreciates MOM’s initiative, but this move has cost the workers a lot as they now have to find alternate accommodation.
To make it worse, he noted that landlords are also increasing the rent, making the situation a lot tougher for these workers.
“We had found that many of the landlord started to raise the rental to increase their revenue in order to make up the lost under the safe-distance measure,” he said.
He added, “Other landlord too raise the rent to take advantage on those who are looking for a place to stay.”
Government should help relocate workers who gets evicted
Although MOM is going all out to ensure safe distancing is observed, but Mr Tan pointed out that he wants the Ministry to find a way to solve the issues that have emerged from implementing these measures.
“Ensuring of safe distance is understanding. But can MOM help to resolve the issues and problem arising from implementing these measure? Can’t just throw worker onto the street and leave them there to die,” he asserted.
Besides Mr Tan, another local activist who supports migrant workers, Kokila Annamalai, also voiced her dissatisfaction over how these workers have to face such terrible injustice in Singapore.
Sharing Mr Tan’s post on her Facebook page, Ms Annamalai said that the latest situation of migrant workers being forced to move out is another example of how the country’s approach to contain “infections among workers worsens the injustices they face”.
Calling it “terrible”, the activist said that the onus is on Singapore to safely house these workers in the country.
“How is it beneficial to evict workers due to overcrowding, if the government provides no alternative arrangements?” she asked.
She explained that if more workers go homeless, then they become more vulnerable to the deadly coronavirus. “And hiked rents are one more stressor on an already overstressed community,” she added.
