MOM says border not closed earlier due to need of migrant workers; No mention of others such as STVP and work passes

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said today (18 May) that Singapore would have been hit hard by a shortfall of at least 100,000 workers and 30,000 domestic workers if migrant workers had not been allowed to enter Singapore after the circuit breaker period last Jun.

MOM said that there would have been a labour shortage of 70,000 service sector workers, 30,000 construction workers and 30,000 domestic workers if Singapore had closed its borders last year.

MOM was responding to the swelling public anger after Singapore entered into a series of lockdown measures which started on Sunday (16 May). The measures came after a number of clusters, including the Changi Airport cluster, started popping up in the last couple of weeks.

Many Singaporeans were asking why Singapore did not shut its borders earlier in order to bring down the number of imported Covid-19 cases, especially after the mutant virus variant B1617 ran amok in India.

MOM replied that since 2 May, Singapore has “completely stopped entry of all from South Asia”.

“At the same time, businesses have been appealing for more workers to be allowed to enter Singapore to address manpower shortages,” it said, shifting the blame to businesses.

MOM added that the outflow of migrant workers has exceeded the inflow over the past year, and as a result of border restrictions to mitigate importation risks, Singapore has not been able to adequately replace those who have left.

“Border restrictions will impact Singaporeans’ daily lives and this will be felt more keenly in the coming weeks and months,” the ministry said in its statement.

“Our restrictions on inflow of workers from higher-risk countries will also likely persist for some time, until the situation improves.”

MOM merely repeats what Lawrence Wong said earlier

MOM did not show a breakdown of the imported cases but was merely repeating what Minister Lawrence Wong said earlier in a media briefing on 4 May, earlier this month (‘Lawrence Wong says SG didn’t close border with India due to need for migrant workers, but traveller stats shows otherwise‘).

Then, Wong told the media that Singapore can’t afford to shut its borders as the country needs migrant workers to build homes. He was also trying to explain why Singapore did not close its border to India earlier, given the record new outbreaks happening there.

“We are small… We need migrant workers to build our homes,” he said.

“We’ve already become very tight, to the point that the backlog of applications has been growing… Many projects have been suffering from delays, as all of us know.

“More recently when we restricted the flow of workers from India and the entire South Indian continent… it means considerable delays will be added to all of our projects.”

“Some of our housing projects may now be delayed by up to a year or more. So it does come at a considerable cost to Singaporeans.”

Infected travellers from India not restricted to migrant workers only

However, a cursory check by TOC shows that those who flew directly from India did not compose entirely of migrant workers (a.k.a. work permit holders) only.

In fact, many more were students, work pass holders, dependant’s pass holders, short-term visit pass holders, and Singapore residents.

For example, four days before the the ban on travellers from India on 23 April with regards to long-term and short-term pass holders who flew directly from India, many of the infected were not migrant workers:

Infected travellers from India on 19 Apr:

• Work Permit – 1
• Student Pass – 1
• Work Pass – 3
• Dependant’s Pass – 1
• Short-Term Visit Pass – 2
• Long-Term Visit Pass – 1
• PR – 4

Infected travellers from India on 20 Apr:

• Work Permit – 2
• Student Pass – 1
• Work Pass – 2
• Dependant’s Pass – 1

Infected travellers from India on 21 Apr:

• Work Permit – 0
• Student Pass – 1
• Work Pass – 2
• Dependant’s Pass – 1
• Short-Term Visit Pass – 1
• PR – 2

Infected travellers from India on 22 Apr:

• Work Permit – 3
• Student Pass – 2
• Work Pass – 2
• Dependant’s Pass – 2
• Short-Term Visit Pass – 1
• PR – 1

So, it’s surprising that Minister Wong and MOM only mentioned about the need to open Singapore’s border with India due to the need for migrant workers and not mentioned the rest.

Migrant workers who support Singapore’s service and construction industry are here as Work Permit holders. They are not entitled to apply for PR nor are they allowed to apply for a dependent pass or short term visit pass for their relatives.