Story by Jolovan Wham
Is your foreign worker giving you problems? Are you afraid that he might be a bad influence on other workers? What if he runs away and you lose your $5000 security deposit*?
For approximately $300 per worker, you can engage the services of a ‘repatriation’ company who will help you deal with the cumbersome task of sending back these trouble makers and allay your fears.
Never mind that you don’t intend to pay this worker his outstanding salary, or that he had suffered an industrial accident at your work place and has not received his work injury compensation. Never mind that he has only worked for a few months for your company and is still trying to pay off the debt he incurred for the chance to work in Singapore.
‘Repatriation companies’ are businesses that are set up specifically to help employers manage ‘troublesome’ foreign workers by roughing them up and sending them back to their home countries forcefully. Many employers are more than happy to pay someone to do this since they find it difficult to handle work place disputes and get rid of foreign workers who do not toe the line.
Paid kidnappers or “service to society”?
‘We are providing a service to society’, claimed Mr Ravi when I met him for the first time.
Mr Ravi is the boss of UTR Services Pte Ltd, one of the more well known repatriation companies. ‘If we don’t provide this service, all these foreign workers will run away and there will be havoc.’
Indians, Bangladeshis, Burmese, Chinese, and Thai,—companies like UTR services have confined and repatriated them all. These guys work round the clock, nabbing workers from dormitories, work sites and even in public places such as coffee shops and outside shopping centers. Typical targets are workers with ‘bad attitudes’, who don’t meet up to employers’ expectations, or whose work permits are going to expire.
The South Asian workers call them ‘Tamil gangsters’: in reality, the people from repatriation companies are burly, rough looking men of all races who are paid to intimidate, assault and coerce workers into returning home.
Employers of course, will not tell workers that they will be sent home in this way. The shock of being repatriated suddenly is a fear many foreign workers have to live with. Once these workers are caught, they are sent to the premises of the repatriation company, locked up in a room and not allowed to leave the premises until the day of their departure. While in the premises, those who protest or refuse to return are routinely assaulted and verbally abused until they agree to go back.
Mind you, the repatriation companies take care to conceal their methods—their assaults do not leave any signs of a visible injury, making any allegation against them for physical abuse hard to prove. On the day of the departure, these workers are escorted to the airport and seen through Immigration. Threats of being blacklisted by the MOM so that they will never be allowed to work in Singapore again are other bullying tactics that are used to intimidate the workers into agreeing to leave.
Mr Xia is a construction worker whose employer called UTR Services because Mr Xia refused to leave until the settlement of these claims. His employer wanted to send him back to China quickly following a dispute He also injured himself while he was at work and he was waiting for his Work Injury Compensation Claim to be processed by the Ministry of Manpower.
What followed was the start of an ordeal that lasted a total of 36 days.
‘They beat me and they took my money’, Mr Xia told me in Mandarin. ‘They said they would only return my money if I agree to return to China. I am very angry—how could my employer do this to me? I am not a criminal. What right do those people have to lock me up, take my money and force me to go home? Why are they so afraid that I would run away? I’m just waiting for my work injury claim to be processed.’
While he was confined in the premises of the repatriation company, Mr Xia told me that he was also slapped and punched. However, he was resolute and refused to be intimidated into going home before he received his money and his work injury compensation.
Running way—a term often used by employers for workers who go missing – is one of the main reasons repatriation companies are in business. Employers stand to lose their deposit of $5000 to the Immigration Authorities if they fail to repatriate their workers. Rather than lose the money, they willingly shell out a couple of hundred dollars to companies like UTR just to make sure that these workers really go home.
Can the police help?
‘You can call the Police for all I care,’ said Francis, the Director of UTR Services, when I was trying to negotiate the release of another foreign worker who was confined. According to Mr Xia, he called the Police 3 times for help during the entire period but his pleas to them went unheeded.
On all three occasions when the Police responded, Mr Xia said that he was told since he was going to be sent home anyway, there was nothing the Police could do to help him. Finally, Mr Xia was given the number of HOME by another worker who was also going to be repatriated.
My colleague, Charanpal, went down to negotiate the release of Mr Xia. UTR only agreed to release the worker after we signed a letter of indemnity stating that we would reimburse the employer of the $5000 security bond should it be forfeited and Mr Xia goes missing.
After his release, Mr Xia made a Police report. The Officer in charge did not seem interested in investigating his complaint. Mr Xia then proceeded to lodge his complaint at the Magistrate’s Court and the Police was ordered to re-investigate.
This time, I accompanied Mr Xia down to the Police station for his statement to be taken. Once again, the police officer seemed uninterested, and even went on to justify the important role that these repatriation companies play in managing foreign workers. He said to me, ‘You have to understand sir, that the employer might lose his $5000 security deposit if this worker goes missing.’ The officer then went on to explain that UTR Services was not doing anything wrong.
Illegal
An interpretation of the Penal Code might yield a different answer. It states very clearly that, “Whoever wrongfully restrains any person in such a manner as to prevent that person from proceeding beyond certain circumscribing limits, is said “wrongfully to confine” that person.” UTR’s activities are clearly a violation of our laws.
I called the employer and brought up the issue of Mr Xia being confined and assaulted by the repatriation company. The employer retorted defensively that UTR is a licensed company and there was nothing wrong with him engaging their services. A search through ACRA reveals that UTR Services Pte Ltd is a company that provides ‘manpower repatriation and related services.’
What this entails is not described at all. UTR is obviously not just an escort service that ferries workers to the airport. Its methods, which include the wrongful restraint of people are clearly illegal.
There are many things wrong with how foreign workers are treated in this country: the presence and operations of repatriation companies is one of them.
By offering such services, these companies are taking advantage of employers’ fears of losing their $5000 security deposit. By utilising their services, employers are taking shortcuts in handling work place conflicts and industrial disputes. By turning a blind eye to them, the authorities seem to be openly endorsing activities which flout the law. All are complicit in the systemic abuse of the rights of migrant workers. As the recession deepens and more hapless foreign workers get laid off, repatriation companies may soon be doing a roaring business.
* The $5000 security bond is a law under the Immigration Act which states that employers who fail to repatriate a foreign worker under work permit will have to pay $5000 as a penalty
The author is a social worker with Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME). To volunteer with HOME, please email Jolovan at jolovan@gmail.com.
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Read also:
A 19th century page from a 21st century draft by Ng Sook Zhen.
“I hope Singapore government punish them” by Andrew Loh.
The Story of Delowar by Deborah Choo.
Mega Development projects and labour supply chains – who is responsible? by Stephanie Chok.
Sent home with $600 by Deborah Choo.
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This is but only one of the methods that employers use to get rid of their foreign workers.
I have seen many cases of foreign workers who were given leave by their employers only to have their work permits cancelled whilst they were away. Many were in shock upon being refused entry when returning to Singapore as they were not told beforehand of the work permit cancellation. Many also had outstanding wages that were not paid and there was no way for them to lodge a complaint with MOM at all. These people were just quietly deported by ICA.
This is the sort of article a respectable newspaper should be publishing.
Singapore is a law and order place! Call the police 999 if this type of company exist and why Ministry of Law and Labour didn’t take action. How to respect Singapore Justice System if these type of things happen here! This is modern salvary exist in Singapore, if Lincoln alive he would not let this happen!
I understand the pains of these worker being repatriated back home, they got a huge debt of 8 to 10K to pay back if they don’t, they will beaten to the death. The employer or the introducing agents should pay back or try to return this amount to the worker if there is no jobs here for them. That is called human beings else “Singapore Employers” is no better than animals! I very very ashamed!
Hi
This same $5000 security deposit is the also the same 5K that caused some employers of maids to :
1.Not have day off
2.Not make phone calls
3.Not talk to anyone around the neighbourhood
4.Forcibly remove the maid in the wee hours of the morning and drive straight to the airport and ensure she goes directly thru the departure gate ( in budget flight of course).
We should do something about this 5K- The gahmen is using the “kiasu-ness” of the Sgporeans who fear losing this deposit and hence make them do unthinkable things which they would not do to their own dogs!
Shocking revelation that the triads in Singapore has a legal front as a repatriation company.
a very pro business place can have many worker issues.
altho companies can easily get numerous workers into singapore,
i hope they also can handle worker issues.
i hope workers are not being exploited.
i wonder if they need a union?
So this is the caring society that PM Lee aims to build?
Care for money.
The lessons of the movie “Changeling” is almost prophetic.
Once a while a movie comes along which holds more than entertainment value. It is also reflective of life as we see and live it.
The movie Changeling is a riveting drama about a missing boy and the undying constancy of the love of a mother Christine whose nine-year-old son, Walter, disappeared in 1928. Five months later, police returned to her a boy they said was Walter but she alleged that the boy was not her son. Much later, it was discovered that Walters was a victim of a serial killer who tortured and killed some 20 children at his farm when the killer’s young nephew blew the whistle on his hideous crime.
All this while, the police department had been under considerable negative publicity and pressure due to the efforts of a church minister Reverend Briegleb to expose excesses within the police force. Captain Jones who headed up the investigation didn’t particularly care whether the boy was or wasn’t Walter. He had a publicity campaign to manage that’s all about making himself and his police chief looked good. So he tried to convince Christine to accept the found boy as her son so that all could “move on” and the police praised for solving the case. When she fought back by going to the press, Jones to silence her used the law unfairly and stealthily had her arrested and committed to the psycho ward. She and many similarly aggrieved inmates were subsequently rescued from the sanatorium by Rev. Briegleb with a court order. With the help of the Rev., his lawyer associate and the free press, the truth finally came out in a court of law and justice prevailed after a trial and tribulation of a few years. The police captain, police chief and the city’s mayor lost their jobs.
The police captain, unwilling to acknowledge the failings of his department, made her the enemy rather than the victim, alternately painting her in the press as a negligent mother who simply doesn’t want to take responsibility for her son now that he’s found and even as a hysterical woman with delusions of paranoia. He even suppressed the confession of the killer’s nephew to avoid looking bad for his mistakes and poor handling of the case.
You may say that Changeling is a potential Oscar award candidate. A dramatic and entertaining film about good prevailing over evil, the rule of law, unaccountable power and the power of free (or lack of free) press. And what is most fascinating is that it is not fiction. The film is actually based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders in the late 1920s – a case of real life being stranger and more horrific than fiction.
And don’t we see some parallel to real life here and events of recent past and present? This story could well have been tailored as a local parable.
Utterly shameful and shocking that these ‘ thugs ‘ like tactics are prevalent in SG -owing to the indulgence of those supposedly law adminstrating and upholding authorities, This whole place : 1st world seems gone case- topsy turvy – when the weak and vulnerable ones are without recourse……..
Where are we heading to -realms of hell ?
Injustice… Deep injustice in so many sectors…
Deep sigh…
All the best~
As I read report after report of the woes of foreign workers, my blood boils over with indignation as a citizen of a civilised 1st world nation.
In comparison, the residents of Serangoon Gardens have been victims of a scheme of divertive blame. It is pure hypocriscy to decry our fellow locals while the same subjects (ie the FWs) are being exploiited and mis-treated in worse ways under the very nose of the law in what seems like a legitimised scam by some local and foreign operators.
It beats most people how agencies are able to import more workers than there are jobs. If the work permit rule, although more liberal, still require each issue of work permit to be justified on need basis, then the integrity of some of the administrators in the appropriate govt. depts are logical suspects of impropriety
Welcome to Singapore.Land of hypocriscy.
Singapore is still immensely wracked with racism, however much our media love to dress it all up with “pragmatism”.
Singaporeans unhappy with foreign worker dormitories being built near their homes? Outright racism.
Our world-class police force not caring for the plight of the foreign workers who build our skyscrapers and homes for us? Outright racism.
Let’s face it. This nation is an immensely unequal nation to anyone who isn’t Chinese. And as a Chinese dude, this vexes me greatly, especially my fellow Chinese people who merely shrug and come up with some kind of excuse like “we’re the majority demographic of the market here”. People aren’t even courageous enough to talk about inequality here and live in a self-contained sphere of reality made up of denial.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for putting this article as I am ILL INFORMED about such actions being taken to encourage our foreign workers.
Dear Reporters, it would be good to take a leaf out of TOC and report issues that are close to the heart.
The reason why I have stopped buying the nations paper is because of the lack of quality information and news.
We need journalists and not reports …… Please also reduce the number of makan programs and other brain dead programs on T.V…. it leads to people eventually being BRAIN dead.
Call it modern globalization where the surface looks so nice and attractive but instead so many rotten things are happening from the inside, exploitation, corruptions, bribery from all areas publics and civil servants. . . . . so sad . . . all becos of money.
Extremely disturbing but nothing new. We are kidding ourselves if we think we live in a crime free society. We claim Singapore has low crime because we have pretty much legalised what would be considered crimes in most civilised countries.
We treat our migrant workers like scum, despite the fact that they clean our clogged sewage drains, cart out our rubbish, build our condos and bungalows and flatten our roads. We may not be able to pay them much money but the least we as ordinary people can do is treat them with a little more respect and not refer to them as “that bangla” or “that PRC guy”, or complain about how they smell or look like. IF we view all migrant workers as evil, then our dear employers will continue to treat them like animals. We have to change our own attitudes about them first, before expecting any decency from our employers and MOM.
For about $80 paid to the insurance company as premium, an employer only needs to pay $250 if a foreign domestic worker runs away. The insurance company pays the remainder 4.75K to the Govt.
Not sure if this is applicable to construction workers, if it is it should be publicize more. For only about $80, the employer avoids the risk of losing 4.75K.
Hi Don,
Just to safeguard their $80+ 250, our great employers rather keep their workers ( or should I say slaves) under lock and key than to risk losing $330!
This article reminds me why people should visit TOC blog.
I never know that such companies exist.
I thought companies that hired them will also take care of sending them home.
I hope to see MSM news report on such thingies.
Talk about FT helping us keep our jobs. It seems some people intend to keep them out.
Please remove “a community of Singaporeans” in your title.
Your PRO-FT coverage is as good as PAP’s pro-FT immigration policies.
insens (#21),
Do you realise that removing the perverted incentives to employ foreign workers will help fellow Singaporeans too by alleviating the wage depression phenomenon in Singapore?
“Mr Ravi is the boss of UTR Services Pte Ltd, one of the more well known repatriation companies. ‘If we don’t provide this service, all these foreign workers will run away and there will be havoc.’”
This just floored me … is Mr Ravi a member of the PAP or are the cases of “argument through sweeping generalizations” starting to infect most of Singapore society?
One of the key problems, I feel, is that we do not treat foreign workers (hell, we do not treat most people) as individuals.
MOM appears to have zero confidence the Home Team can handle potential trouble-makers. Instead, they pass the buck … to the employers by threatening to take away $5,000 if a foreign worker causes trouble. The employers, in turn, pass the buck to these “repatriation” companies and it appears MOM and the Home Team couldn’t care less what those companies do. This is just the perfect condition for abuse.
Instead of a system capable of dealing with trouble-makers, which should be a very small fraction of foreign workers let into Singapore, we now have a system which allows employers to abuse their workers with little oversight.
This is very sad.
U need to tackle the problem from the root base
Highlight the companies who abuses the system
Muster the publicity where they recruit the workers and educate and let them
spread the abuse of the recruitment system by word of mouth
It means gathering the root network at the base country and working closely with
them to prevent these abuses
It sad that there are Sporeans who lost their soul
These companies are merely a reflection of a large part of Singaporean society. Despite all the years of ‘national education’ and ‘racial harmony days’, Singaporeans are still capable of showing deep prejudices and racism.
I came to Singapore in 1995 and became a PR, did my NS in ’97 and became Singaporean. Yet, a few weeks ago, I was yelled at in the train by this couple (who wanted to rush into the train, rudely pushed me away) and asked to “go back to Bangla” (despite the fact that I am not from Bangladesh, but that’s another story), and the guy even threatened to beat me up, right in the middle of the train. Another time, some drunk guy below my block started saying ‘you f’ing Indian! Go back to India you …… ‘ and went on for 10-15 minutes.
During both these incidents, not one person stood up to accost these people or tell them off. It was “someone else’s problem”. It was then that I realised that no matter how “Singaporean” I am, as a minority, I will always be looked on with suspicion. Those people in the MRT and below my block, by their silence, have shown that they condone such acts. This to me is exceedingly disturbing, that the facade of ‘multiracialism’ and respecting other people’s differences and race is so thin. I am not saying that all Chinese are racist or anything of that sort, but if we don’t even rise up against such xenophobia in such public settings like the MRT and HDB void decks, how can we empathise with the largely invisible lot of the migrant worker here in Singapore?
The Garmen keep telling us to treat FT as one of us, to be passionate towards them n so on….see what happen now? true hypocrite.
Hades, it’s not a pleasant experience to be targeted like that, but don’t blame local-born Singaporeans for that. Any country and any culture will react the same way if their governments open the floodgates for foreigners to come in. In Russia there are many skinhead gangs going around beating up foreigners.
Apart of job competition, many foreigners who enter Singapore refuse to integrate with the locals, and continue with their coarse manners here. This stirs up even more ire, and the usual human reaction is hitting out at someone of the same appearance.
It’s neither the locals’ or the foreigners’ fault. Blame lies solely on this short-sighted and naive government, who think cramming this island with people drives up GDP.
Hi Hades,
I apologise on behalf of those xenophobic Singaporeans.
Although some of us advocate a more stringent migration policy -our quarrel is with the govt.
Once you have come and esply if you have become a full-fledged Singaporean- I welcome you. I hope that you can find your rightful place in Sg and help us change Sg to be a better place.
There is no doubt that despite what some in this blog says, many Singaporeans are racists. Intolerance results from ignorance/lack of exposure to other cultures/low self esteem.
Keep contributing your views.
Hi Hades, sorry to hear that you have had such bad experiences.
I believe when you said that singaporeans condone such acts, it is not entirely right.
In social psychology (im no psychologist), there is a concept as “division of responsibility” or something like this (i stand to be corrected).
This is used to describe social incidences when there are so many people around but nobody feels like it is their responsibility to right the wrong. And i’m sure most of us have heard of how people can get robbed in the middle of a busy street in Hong Kong and no one will come to your rescue. Its not that the by standers “condone” the act, but it just didn’t occur to them that they should stop it.
Its always “somebody else’s problem” mentality is so prevalent that anyone will commit at some point of time if we don’t actively use our brains and conscience.
and once again, so sorry for hearing your experience. I would help you if i were there :) (i think. unless my wife is delivering :)
Hi, I am not ‘blaming’ anyone. I am just pointing out the apathy we are living under and the attitude that it’s “someone else’s problem” even when confronted with racism in front of our faces. The same attitude exists regarding our view on the plight of migrant workers, that they are “someone else’s problem”, until they want to live near us, in which case people make a lot of noise about increasing crime and such nonsense. There are racists all over the world, but to sit down and accept it happening right in front of our eyes says a lot about the society we live in.
Our migrant workers are human beings who came here looking for a better life for their family, just like our ancestors did. Yet we deny them even basic human rights and condone all kinds of injustice to them by saying “well they chose to come here”. Yes, they did, and we continue to “choose to treat them like animals”.
This sounds dangerous. We’re heading back to the days of societies, gangsterism and slavery. Looks like the police is just to keep petty crimes, political interference and kangaroos at bay isn’t it?
Funny things, first we singaporeans are assured of heading into the golden years by our elites which we believed them and instead we are now heading into an opposite direction and got cheated. Now, the FW are also made into believing that they are coming here to benefit from us, and now instead of making good money to bring home, they got cheated, ill treated and were being threatened to keep their mouths shut. The whole scene is a big messed up because of lies and more lies being told.
This is OUTRAGEOUS.
Does thepolice or MHA have an email address for us to query? I searched their websites and could not find any.
The repatriation companies are making lots of money during this big economic downturn.The garmen said its alright. I am just disgusted and ashamed. Surely, it condones human degradation and this is like some of the activities of the Nazis in pre-war Germany. Its just that later on the Nazis went too far by gassing six million Jews and other people. Our garmen is at the beginning stage of the Nazis and can it escalate? Yes. Possible. Frightening. Great place to live, Singapore. Golden era. God’s own country.
The garmen said young men you do NS and fight and die for your country. You die, who lives. TheEEElite. They are in the rear. The officer said you must charge and attack and throw hand grenades into the pillbox. Hohapata will die and the scholar officer will live – he is in the command post. Fight and die for Singapore!
Moderator – for the rear part of comment #24, could you please send me a private email explaining the rationale for the deletion? I am not upset by it, just a little surprised and concerned that I might have said something wrong or defamatory.
It is too troublesome for government to investigate foregin worker dispute in a fair and timely manner. It is just too many cases reported. Somemore, it does not benefit government to help these worker in anyway. Worse, it pissed off employers who pay taxes and create jobs. That probably explain why government turns blind to these foreign worker request for help.
It just shows that MHA/MOM have being slack in their dealings all along.
These two ministires may need a top down dressing and maybe a change of their top command.
So far, they have not improve all these years in dealing effectively with many labour related problems.
They are perhaps only good in catching Singaporeans speeding or sleeping on the bench at East Coast Park.
If you ask them to do more they simply back off.
This is why we need to have our voices represented. That Gan guy was a people-rejected item during election, but the PAP somehow got him into the ruling bandwagon by the GRC backdoor, and made him one of the features of MOM.
What has he done? You see his face lately all over the MSM but why isn’t he paying attention to the workers or MOM’s treatment of the workers instead?
Sleeping on his job?
This is a clear example why the current election system must be dismantled. Someone rejected by the people, who could see his failings from a mile away, is forced on us, and now to create this mess.
You’re right gemami. I too recalled that this guy was a no-hoper. However, strangely, his rise in the party ranks have been meteoric despite his mediocrity. I’ve also wondered about this…..
I also wonder why did the people of Choa Chu Kang vote in for GE 2006? Strange decision.
Steve Chia, on the other hand, would have made a people’s MP. If you just relied on pictures and text from the papers, he wouldnt make an impression on you. But if you meet him in person and heard him talk, his charisma and sincerity becomes apparent.
As for Gan, apparently he ran away from the media at a grassroots event last Sunday. Was too chicken to face questions from reporters.
One would think that leaders should be made of stronger mettle……
yes i do agree to tis tat repartriation companys all open by triad members also mostly utr which formerly had t name squadron and tis ravi and francis as i am also bein abuse seems t police can,t do much and i am mr ravis wife need help pls
true enough tis companys r bein run by triad member but fully police r not to be blame as tis ppl knows t loophole of laws and been to prison learning it and ppl who r willing to help should be help too
Your house is valueble for me. Thanks!Ö
MOM should hold back the 5K even when the worker goes home. It should be use to settle any salary dispute the worker have with the company. Only after MOM have investigated the claim then will the money be release to the company or worker. Workers will be more willing to go home knowing that their case is being looked into. Most of the time the 5K comes form the worker themselves having paid anything up to 10K to work in Singapore. So the true onwer of the 5K is the worker themselves Company claiming that they will lose the 5K are all bullshit it is extra income for the company.
About UTR
With over 15 years of experience, UTR Services was set up to fill a niche for a specialist, dedicated company to handle the repatriation of foreign workers. Today, UTR has become one of the largest and most established companies specializing in repatriation services. Since its incorporation in 2005, UTR has enjoyed steady growth and many of the Singapore’s best-known assistance companies now appear on its client list.
UTR’s rate of growth has been carefully controlled to ensure that its service standards are never compromised and that financial resources are not unduly stretched – a policy that has contributed to the company’s success to date. These developments ensure that the high standards of service expected at UTR are maintained as the company increases its level of activity through expansion.
UTR is proud of its reputation as an innovative, flexible and responsive partner – ideally placed to provide specialist repatriation solutions for its clients.
Our Team
UTR believes in providing clients with superior levels of service in the repatriation market. A service delivered by a well-trained and highly experienced team, backed by management information delivered in a format designed to interface with the clients existing systems.
We have more than 25 staff members working in teams and our very own fleet of vehicles to cater to our clients in a timely fashion. Our staff are multi-lingual and well equipped to deal with workers from Asia including China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Sri Lanka.
At UTR, we provide experienced, dedicated professionals who are available to assist clients – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
http://utr.sg/index.html
UTR Services Pte Ltd IS A SECURITY COMPANY….
CISCO should handle the repatriation business and the authorities must issue new guidelines on the industry. NTUC should have a NGO unit to tackle human rights abuses. Foreign workers should be entitled Union protection and services.
This is hardly surprising.
In early 1990s, PAP mentioned there were about 200K FWs (not FTs) in SG. The emphasis was on restricting their numbers.
From 1997/1998 onwards, the FW numbers (FT was a separate issue), were allowed to increase to 900K in 2010.
This was an increase of 4.5 times over 20 years.
The employers brought the FWs in without any thought of how to manage them. When problems occurred, the employers simply tried to push the problems aside.
PAP occasionally tried talked about controlling the FW numbers but had no impact. FW (unlike FT) management is unglamourous and no elitist politician or bureaucrat wants to spend time on such issues.
Actually UTR was in the news a few months back (Newspaper) , just that there was not really an in depth report on it’s activities.
If you feel strongly about this, don’t just whinge on the internet. Email Teo Chee Hean, the Home Affairs minister.
teo_chee_hean@mha.gov.sg
Under Government Instruction Manual No 7 (IM7), he has to acknowledge your mail within 3 days, and reply within 7 days (or 21 days if the issue is complex).