TODAY online ran this story today:
AT ONE point yesterday, the group of 179 hungry Bangladeshi workers were not even sure if, by nightfall, they would be turned out onto the streets to spend a chilly December night.
Many had not eaten all day — meals, supposed to have been docked from their wages, were not delivered. For that matter, most claimed not to have been paid for up to three months.
On Monday, the agent they had called “Boss” for the past year told them that he was no longer their “employer”. He emptied his office, kept their passports, and left the workers to their fate at their Tagore Lane dormitory. The next day, the landlord threatened to evict them as the rent was not paid.
Showing this reporter his empty wallet, a tearful Abdul Hamid pleaded for the authorities to step in. “I don’t know what will happen. I have not eaten for a day. If you don’t eat for a day, what will happen to you?”
The 179 are believed to be the largest single group of migrant workers here to have been abandoned by an employer or agent.
And their plight has surfaced just as the world today marks a sober :International Migrants Day, with the International Labour Organisation warning that millions of migrant workers face layoffs and worsening conditions as the global financial crisis deepens.
In Singapore, the Bangladesh High Commission said it has heard over 1,000 salary dispute cases this year — last year, there were some 300. With the downturn, a spokeswoman said, more disputes can be expected. “Contractors and subcontractors have brought in more people than they actually require,” she added.
In recent weeks, migrant workers’ groups have gotten complaints from at least 50 workers claiming they were owed wages; some said their companies had been forced to close down.
Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) president John Gee said: “Contractors large and small are feeling the pinch, and we think that, in looking for ways of trimming costs, they all too often think of foreign workers as those they can pass their problems on to.”
Bad enough, many will lose their jobs; those even less lucky may get sacked without being paid back-wages owed.
MOM comes down on employer
In the case of the 179 Bangladeshis, they told TODAY they had paid between $8,000 and $10,000 to come to Singapore to work. They thought their agent, Mr Uthayanan, was their boss.
Officially, however, their registered employer – which the workers claimed they had never seen, prior to this month – was Tipper Corporation, a marine company.
Tipper said Mr Uthayanan was supposed to look after the workers, and that the workers were supposed to have been on a training programme to pick up job skills, before being brought in to work on a big project for the company in March next year.
However, many of the Bangladeshis have been in Singapore since July last year – going by the date on their work permits – and they claim to have worked for three to six other companies. They also claim to have been paid less than $250 a month.
Tipper said the abandonment saga had arisen from the souring of a business agreement between Tipper and four parties, one of whom was Mr Uthayanan. The company had filed a writ of summons against the four on Dec 2.
When contacted by TODAY, Mr Uthayanan would only say he was not responsible for the workers, and declined to comment further.
In response to queries, a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) spokesman said it is investigating Tipper for the illegal deployment of foreign workers, as well as the failure to pay the workers their salary. “Work pass applications by Tipper Corporation will also no longer be accepted by MOM,” she added. “Tipper Corporation remains responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the workers, and if they fail to fulfil their responsibility, they will be committing further breaches of the law.”
For the 179 workers, the good news is that they will have a roof over their heads at least for now. :Dinner last night – their only meal of the day was catered by TWC2. Tipper also assured them it would resolve the outstanding salary disputes and move the men to new accommmodation on Saturday, and until then they could stay on at the dormitory.
The desperate among them can only hope that things work out. Said Mr Shafique Alomgir: “My father and mother died recently. One dollar also I don’t have to send back.”
Thursday, December 18, 2008
179 Foreign Workers Abandoned By Employer
The Online Citizen website reported this news story yesterday:
Some 179 foreign workers from Bangladesh fear they may not have a place to sleep or food to eat in the coming days. Their employer has basically abandoned them and they are being evicted from their dormitory in two days.
The Online Citizen (TOC) was alerted to their plight and visited them yesterday at Tagore Lane.
The workers had each paid agents some S$8,500 for a 2-year contract to work in Singapore shipyards. The agents said they could earn up to S$18 per day and more if they worked on Sundays. In two years, they could earn some S$15,000, enough to cover the money they paid to the agents and bring home a small sum.
However, they are not employees of the shipyards. The sub-contractor employed them and sent them to the shipyards to work as welders and electricians. Their starting pay was S$16 per day but were paid only if they had job assignments. After being here for more than a year, they had their pay increased by one dollar to $17 per day. For a good period of time, it was not an issue. But in the past two and a half months, many of them did not get any work assignments – some for as long as four months - and thus no pay as well.
Now they are worried and desperate about what will happen next. Their employer has denied responsibility for them and has vacated the office from the factory. The drivers who drove them to work have also vacated the dorm. They have no money and no food and were told that the landlord is going to evict them as the rental period for the dormitory is expiring soon. They have called the police and approached the Ministry of Manpower yesterday for assistance but to no avail. Their next course of action is to seek help from their embassy here.
Some 179 foreign workers from Bangladesh fear they may not have a place to sleep or food to eat in the coming days. Their employer has basically abandoned them and they are being evicted from their dormitory in two days.
The Online Citizen (TOC) was alerted to their plight and visited them yesterday at Tagore Lane.
The workers had each paid agents some S$8,500 for a 2-year contract to work in Singapore shipyards. The agents said they could earn up to S$18 per day and more if they worked on Sundays. In two years, they could earn some S$15,000, enough to cover the money they paid to the agents and bring home a small sum.
However, they are not employees of the shipyards. The sub-contractor employed them and sent them to the shipyards to work as welders and electricians. Their starting pay was S$16 per day but were paid only if they had job assignments. After being here for more than a year, they had their pay increased by one dollar to $17 per day. For a good period of time, it was not an issue. But in the past two and a half months, many of them did not get any work assignments – some for as long as four months - and thus no pay as well.
Now they are worried and desperate about what will happen next. Their employer has denied responsibility for them and has vacated the office from the factory. The drivers who drove them to work have also vacated the dorm. They have no money and no food and were told that the landlord is going to evict them as the rental period for the dormitory is expiring soon. They have called the police and approached the Ministry of Manpower yesterday for assistance but to no avail. Their next course of action is to seek help from their embassy here.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Migrant Workers Under Pressure
This story appeared on BBC News on 16 December 2008 @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7774180.stm:
Migrant Workers Under Pressure
By Stephanie Holmes
Vast sums of money criss-cross the globe each day, as millions of migrant workers send a portion of their pay packet home.
This surging flow of funds supports one in 10 people on the planet, but the world financial crisis could slam on the brakes.
In some cases it's the workers that are now making the journey home, rather than the money they've earned, month after month, in a foreign country.
"I was in Doha, talking to a guy from Djibouti and he says he makes about $500 to $600 a month and sends about $300 to his family," says economist Dilip Ratha, the head of the World Bank team which studies these money flows, known as remittances.
"Basically, every penny he doesn't spend goes home. And I've heard the same story from Pakistani undocumented migrants in Madrid, from Bangladeshis in Austria, El Salvadorians in Washington - they basically move to send money home."
The World Bank estimates the value of these often invisible cash flows at anywhere between $350bn and $600bn (£236bn - £405bn) per year.
Exact numbers are very difficult to estimate as they are based both on traceable channels - like banks - and cash carried across borders by hand or via informal brokers.
A resilient resource
But the same is estimated at up to three times the amount of money transferred from richer countries to the developing world by governments and international institutions as aid.
The flow of remittances has been rising by as much as 30% year on year in some areas, but the rate of growth has already dramatically slowed.
In 2009, the World Bank predicts, the amount sent home by the world's 150 million international migrants could fall by about 1%.
Mexico - the third biggest recipient of remittances in the world - is forecasting that income will dip in 2008 by almost 8% from the estimated $23.8bn in 2007.
"We are very worried that remittances will not grow in the coming years because of the financial crisis in the developed countries which are the main source of remittances," says Mr Ratha.
Migrant workers - working hard to alleviate need at home - often represent a resilient income source for developing countries.
In 2007, they generated almost half of Tajikistan's Gross Domestic Product and more than a third of Lesotho's, according to the World Bank.
And in the past when times are tough in the receiving country more money, rather than less, has arrived back home.
Spending less
But this new financial crisis is unparalleled in its global scale, warns Pedro de Vasconcelos, an expert on remittances for the International Fund for Agricultural Development, hitting rich and poor countries alike.
"They might lose one. Imagine they have an income of $1,500 and they send 20 - 50% of the money home and live with the rest. When they absorb the shock they just try to live with less so they can maintain the flow of remittances. But they still have to live."
Many migrant workers in the US are employed in the service industry and when richer Americans decide to cut back on their Friday night meal out, or decide that they can't really afford to pay the nanny anymore, he warns, the impact will be direct.
"In the US, there is this electric feeling in the air - nobody knows how it is going to affect their lives. Everyone is frozen, spending less. If the crisis starts settling and being more obvious, it will affect the Latin American communities in the US."
But while remittances are predicted to dip, other sources of income received by developing countries from outside could decline far more steeply.
Experts predict that aid and foreign investment in developing countries, currently standing at $1 trillion per year, could be halved as a result of the financial crisis.
Remittances could therefore become even more important to a nation trying to make ends meet, but there is a debate about how effective they are at promoting development.
Migration culture
Some believe that channelling money directly into the pockets of family members is the most direct form of development available - ensuring the money reaches those who need it most.
But others see remittances as both socially disruptive and even politically dangerous.
"They don't automatically lead to development," argues Stephen Castles, Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies at the University of Oxford.
"There are cases where countries encourage people to emigrate as workers in order to reduce unemployment and political pressure - getting them to move out reduces political discontent," he says, citing the Philippines as an example where a culture of migration has become the norm.
"There are actually colleges in the Philippines where qualified doctors are retraining as nurses because it is easier for them to find work as nurses in the West, so you actually get people being de-qualified in order to migrate," he says.
And because remittances are by their very nature private and often untraceable transfers of money they can end up sustaining fighting, rather than promoting prosperity.
"If you think about Somalia, the only way to send money is through irregular and informal channels. That's the danger, because it isn't controlled, it could fuel further conflicts."
But Mr Ratha is a fervent believer in the transforming power of migrants - and the money they send home - to help move a country out of poverty.
"Remittances can provide food, or clothing, or housing or educational expenses or capital for small businesses for the family," he says. "In the end, people are what we want development for."
Migrant Workers Under Pressure
By Stephanie Holmes
Vast sums of money criss-cross the globe each day, as millions of migrant workers send a portion of their pay packet home.
This surging flow of funds supports one in 10 people on the planet, but the world financial crisis could slam on the brakes.
In some cases it's the workers that are now making the journey home, rather than the money they've earned, month after month, in a foreign country.
"I was in Doha, talking to a guy from Djibouti and he says he makes about $500 to $600 a month and sends about $300 to his family," says economist Dilip Ratha, the head of the World Bank team which studies these money flows, known as remittances.
"Basically, every penny he doesn't spend goes home. And I've heard the same story from Pakistani undocumented migrants in Madrid, from Bangladeshis in Austria, El Salvadorians in Washington - they basically move to send money home."
The World Bank estimates the value of these often invisible cash flows at anywhere between $350bn and $600bn (£236bn - £405bn) per year.
Exact numbers are very difficult to estimate as they are based both on traceable channels - like banks - and cash carried across borders by hand or via informal brokers.
A resilient resource
But the same is estimated at up to three times the amount of money transferred from richer countries to the developing world by governments and international institutions as aid.
The flow of remittances has been rising by as much as 30% year on year in some areas, but the rate of growth has already dramatically slowed.
In 2009, the World Bank predicts, the amount sent home by the world's 150 million international migrants could fall by about 1%.
Mexico - the third biggest recipient of remittances in the world - is forecasting that income will dip in 2008 by almost 8% from the estimated $23.8bn in 2007.
"We are very worried that remittances will not grow in the coming years because of the financial crisis in the developed countries which are the main source of remittances," says Mr Ratha.
Migrant workers - working hard to alleviate need at home - often represent a resilient income source for developing countries.
In 2007, they generated almost half of Tajikistan's Gross Domestic Product and more than a third of Lesotho's, according to the World Bank.
And in the past when times are tough in the receiving country more money, rather than less, has arrived back home.
Spending less
But this new financial crisis is unparalleled in its global scale, warns Pedro de Vasconcelos, an expert on remittances for the International Fund for Agricultural Development, hitting rich and poor countries alike.
"They might lose one. Imagine they have an income of $1,500 and they send 20 - 50% of the money home and live with the rest. When they absorb the shock they just try to live with less so they can maintain the flow of remittances. But they still have to live."
Many migrant workers in the US are employed in the service industry and when richer Americans decide to cut back on their Friday night meal out, or decide that they can't really afford to pay the nanny anymore, he warns, the impact will be direct.
"In the US, there is this electric feeling in the air - nobody knows how it is going to affect their lives. Everyone is frozen, spending less. If the crisis starts settling and being more obvious, it will affect the Latin American communities in the US."
But while remittances are predicted to dip, other sources of income received by developing countries from outside could decline far more steeply.
Experts predict that aid and foreign investment in developing countries, currently standing at $1 trillion per year, could be halved as a result of the financial crisis.
Remittances could therefore become even more important to a nation trying to make ends meet, but there is a debate about how effective they are at promoting development.
Migration culture
Some believe that channelling money directly into the pockets of family members is the most direct form of development available - ensuring the money reaches those who need it most.
But others see remittances as both socially disruptive and even politically dangerous.
"They don't automatically lead to development," argues Stephen Castles, Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies at the University of Oxford.
"There are cases where countries encourage people to emigrate as workers in order to reduce unemployment and political pressure - getting them to move out reduces political discontent," he says, citing the Philippines as an example where a culture of migration has become the norm.
"There are actually colleges in the Philippines where qualified doctors are retraining as nurses because it is easier for them to find work as nurses in the West, so you actually get people being de-qualified in order to migrate," he says.
And because remittances are by their very nature private and often untraceable transfers of money they can end up sustaining fighting, rather than promoting prosperity.
"If you think about Somalia, the only way to send money is through irregular and informal channels. That's the danger, because it isn't controlled, it could fuel further conflicts."
But Mr Ratha is a fervent believer in the transforming power of migrants - and the money they send home - to help move a country out of poverty.
"Remittances can provide food, or clothing, or housing or educational expenses or capital for small businesses for the family," he says. "In the end, people are what we want development for."
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Food Court Outlet to Introduce Biodegradable Disposables
Channel NewsAsia ran this story today:
Come this weekend, ordering your food to dine in or takeaway may leave less of a carbon footprint than in the past.
Import and distribution company CornWare is introducing biodegradable disposable wares.
Made from corn, the prices of these products are comparable to their plastic and styrofoam counterparts.
One outlet of the food court chain Banquet will be using the biodegradable disposable wares from this weekend.
Olive Green Marketing is working with Banquet's other food courts to introduce them at more outlets.
Banquet says the charges for takeaways remain unchanged at 20 cents.
"The biodegradable disposables are carbon neutral. Carbon neutrality is quite a simple concept in the sense that the amount of carbon dioxide that it releases upon incineration in Singapore is at most 32 per cent, as compared to the amount of carbon dioxide released by styrofoam and plastics which is almost 100 per cent," said the executive director of Olive Green Marketing, Aloysius Cheong.
Come this weekend, ordering your food to dine in or takeaway may leave less of a carbon footprint than in the past.
Import and distribution company CornWare is introducing biodegradable disposable wares.
Made from corn, the prices of these products are comparable to their plastic and styrofoam counterparts.
One outlet of the food court chain Banquet will be using the biodegradable disposable wares from this weekend.
Olive Green Marketing is working with Banquet's other food courts to introduce them at more outlets.
Banquet says the charges for takeaways remain unchanged at 20 cents.
"The biodegradable disposables are carbon neutral. Carbon neutrality is quite a simple concept in the sense that the amount of carbon dioxide that it releases upon incineration in Singapore is at most 32 per cent, as compared to the amount of carbon dioxide released by styrofoam and plastics which is almost 100 per cent," said the executive director of Olive Green Marketing, Aloysius Cheong.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Internet journalists most likely to be jailed
The following article appeared in the online edition of My Paper, Tues, 9 December 2008:
Repressive governments target reporters because of the latter's power and influence. -myp
Tue, Dec 09, 2008
my paper
NEW YORK - REFLECTING the rising influence of online reporting and commentary, more Internet journalists today are jailed worldwide than those working in any other medium, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
In its annual census of imprisoned journalists released last week, the CPJ found that 45 per cent of all media workers jailed worldwide were bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors. It was the first time online journalists represented the largest professional category.
Of 125 journalists known to be jailed as of last Monday, at least 56 work online, the CPJ census found.
Print reporters, editors, and photographers - the largest category previously - were the next largest group, with 53 cases.
Television and radio journalists and documentary filmmakers make up the rest. The number of jailed online journalists has risen steadily, since the CPJ census noted the first jailed Internet writer in 1997.
"Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we communicate with each other," CPJ executive director Joel Simon observed.
"But the power and influence of this new generation of online journalists have captured the attention of repressive governments... and they have accelerated their counterattack."
The significance of Internet journalism can be seen in China, where 24 of 28 jailed journalists worked online. They include activist and blogger Hu Jia, who was recently awarded the prestigious Sakharov prize by the European Parliament.
The CPJ list excludes prominent Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was held briefly under the Internal Security Act, before being freed by a court last month.
http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20081209-106377.html
Saturday, December 6, 2008
PM Lee: We Will Catch Mas Salamat One Day
AFP ran this story on December 5:
Singapore does not know if the country's most wanted man is still in the country more than nine months after he escaped from detention, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Friday.
Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged Singapore leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group, escaped in February from a maximum-security detention centre. The incident badly dented Singapore's reputation for tight security.
"We don't know. He could be here, he could be overseas," Lee told a forum of foreign correspondents.
He said Singapore tried its best "to make sure he doesn't go anywhere" but added: "Short though our borders may be, they are difficult to watch all the time."
Two months after the escape, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament that security agencies believed Kastari was still in Singapore, but analysts said Kastari had likely fled to nearby Indonesia.
"One day we will catch him," Lee vowed on Friday.
On rumours that Kastari did not escape but was killed in government custody, Lee said: "I have heard that rumour. It's ridiculous."
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but was never formally charged. When he escaped, he was being held under a law that allows for detention without trial.
Singapore has offered a reward of one million dollars (656,000 US), put up by local businessmen, for information leading to the recapture of Kastari whether at home or abroad.
Born in 1961 in Singapore, Kastari fled the country after an Internal Security Department operation broke up the local JI network with a series of arrests beginning in December 2001, the government said.
He was arrested in Indonesia in 2006 and handed back to Singapore.
Regional authorities have blamed JI for a string of attacks, including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people.
Singapore does not know if the country's most wanted man is still in the country more than nine months after he escaped from detention, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Friday.
Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged Singapore leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group, escaped in February from a maximum-security detention centre. The incident badly dented Singapore's reputation for tight security.
"We don't know. He could be here, he could be overseas," Lee told a forum of foreign correspondents.
He said Singapore tried its best "to make sure he doesn't go anywhere" but added: "Short though our borders may be, they are difficult to watch all the time."
Two months after the escape, Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament that security agencies believed Kastari was still in Singapore, but analysts said Kastari had likely fled to nearby Indonesia.
"One day we will catch him," Lee vowed on Friday.
On rumours that Kastari did not escape but was killed in government custody, Lee said: "I have heard that rumour. It's ridiculous."
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but was never formally charged. When he escaped, he was being held under a law that allows for detention without trial.
Singapore has offered a reward of one million dollars (656,000 US), put up by local businessmen, for information leading to the recapture of Kastari whether at home or abroad.
Born in 1961 in Singapore, Kastari fled the country after an Internal Security Department operation broke up the local JI network with a series of arrests beginning in December 2001, the government said.
He was arrested in Indonesia in 2006 and handed back to Singapore.
Regional authorities have blamed JI for a string of attacks, including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people.
Singapore May Face U.S. Challenge On Bank Secrecy Laws
SINGAPORE, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Singapore may face political pressure from the United States over its role as a financial centre for rich foreigners, the country's prime minister said on Friday.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told journalists at a lunch hosted by Singapore's Foreign Correspondents Association that U.S. pressure on some European countries to lighten banking secrecy laws and open their books to greater scrutiny may lead to more European money flowing into Singapore in the short term.
"But I expect Singapore to come under pressure too," he said in response to a question on whether pressure on countries like Switzerland and Liechtenstein will help Singapore.
Singapore's government has previously denied suggestions that the country is a tax haven. It has strict bank secrecy laws and has been promoting itself as a rival financial centre to Hong Kong to attract banks such as UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to manage money for rich local and foreign clients. (Reporting by Neil Chatterjee and Kevin Lim; Writing by Jan Dahinten; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told journalists at a lunch hosted by Singapore's Foreign Correspondents Association that U.S. pressure on some European countries to lighten banking secrecy laws and open their books to greater scrutiny may lead to more European money flowing into Singapore in the short term.
"But I expect Singapore to come under pressure too," he said in response to a question on whether pressure on countries like Switzerland and Liechtenstein will help Singapore.
Singapore's government has previously denied suggestions that the country is a tax haven. It has strict bank secrecy laws and has been promoting itself as a rival financial centre to Hong Kong to attract banks such as UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to manage money for rich local and foreign clients. (Reporting by Neil Chatterjee and Kevin Lim; Writing by Jan Dahinten; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Ten More Temporary Foreign Workers Dormitory
Channel NewsAsia ran this new today:
The National Development Ministry (MND) has on Wednesday released the details of another 10 temporary dormitory sites for foreign workers.
The 10 sites, comprising 3 vacant state buildings and 7 vacant state lands, will provide an additional 20,000 bed spaces.
The 3 state properties which will be converted into temporary dormitories are the former Queenstown Polyclinic at 51 Margaret Drive, the former CAAS office at 1801 Upper Changi Road North, and the existing CPG Corporation Airport Development Division at 1800 Upper Changi Road North.
The former Queenstown Polyclinic and the former CAAS office will house 150 construction workers each. MND said these two temporary dormitories will be ready in about 3 to 6 months.
After the CPG Airport branch is vacated in 3 to 6 months' time, it will be tendered out for the development of a temporary dormitory for 800 construction workers.
The 7 state lands which can be developed into temporary dormitory sites are located in or near industrial estates. The sites are at Mandai Road, Old Choa Chu Kang Road, Hougang Avenue 3, Seletar West Farmway which is located in Jalan Kayu, Jurong Road and Kim Chuan Road.
Their leases have been kept to not more than 6 years.
MND said it has consulted the area's Members of Parliament (MPs) and grassroots organisations in the past two months on the development of the sites into temporary dormitories.
It added that several measures will be put in place to minimise the inconveniences posed by the dormitory developments. These include requiring the dormitories to have adequate facilities for workers, appointing a liaison officer as a point of contact for the grassroots organisations, and conducting educational programmes to inform workers of the social norms and laws in Singapore.
The government is also engaging the MPs and grassroots leaders of existing areas with very high foreign worker populations to identify and implement appropriate measures.
The temporary dormitories are part of the government's efforts to provide proper housing for foreign workers, while more purpose built dormitories come on stream over the next few years.
The National Development Ministry (MND) has on Wednesday released the details of another 10 temporary dormitory sites for foreign workers.
The 10 sites, comprising 3 vacant state buildings and 7 vacant state lands, will provide an additional 20,000 bed spaces.
The 3 state properties which will be converted into temporary dormitories are the former Queenstown Polyclinic at 51 Margaret Drive, the former CAAS office at 1801 Upper Changi Road North, and the existing CPG Corporation Airport Development Division at 1800 Upper Changi Road North.
The former Queenstown Polyclinic and the former CAAS office will house 150 construction workers each. MND said these two temporary dormitories will be ready in about 3 to 6 months.
After the CPG Airport branch is vacated in 3 to 6 months' time, it will be tendered out for the development of a temporary dormitory for 800 construction workers.
The 7 state lands which can be developed into temporary dormitory sites are located in or near industrial estates. The sites are at Mandai Road, Old Choa Chu Kang Road, Hougang Avenue 3, Seletar West Farmway which is located in Jalan Kayu, Jurong Road and Kim Chuan Road.
Their leases have been kept to not more than 6 years.
MND said it has consulted the area's Members of Parliament (MPs) and grassroots organisations in the past two months on the development of the sites into temporary dormitories.
It added that several measures will be put in place to minimise the inconveniences posed by the dormitory developments. These include requiring the dormitories to have adequate facilities for workers, appointing a liaison officer as a point of contact for the grassroots organisations, and conducting educational programmes to inform workers of the social norms and laws in Singapore.
The government is also engaging the MPs and grassroots leaders of existing areas with very high foreign worker populations to identify and implement appropriate measures.
The temporary dormitories are part of the government's efforts to provide proper housing for foreign workers, while more purpose built dormitories come on stream over the next few years.
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