Andrew Loh with special thanks to “wildpoppies2009″
In December 2008, Bangladeshi worker Mohamad Kamaluddin, 28, was found dead in his dormitory at 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue. He was an employee of Gates Offshore, a ship repair and dormitory services company.
Kamaluddin had contracted chicken pox but was not given any medical assistance by his employer or the police, which his fellow workers said, had visited the dormitory several times prior to Kamaluddin’s death. We understand that his employer had given his family S$167.
We have learnt that legal firm, Leonard Loo & Partners and the non-government organization, TWC2, recently submitted a notification of Kamaluddin’s death to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). MOM was never notified by the employer, Gates Offshore, or Mr Paul Lee. The policy was that the employer is to notify MOM of the accident. However, the worker or his family could also notify MOM if they found out that the employer, in this case Gates Offshore/Paul Lee, did not notify MOM. Kamaluddin died late last year. MOM was only notified in June 2009!
Below is an exclusive, never-before-seen video of the scenes at the dormitory at 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue on the morning of 28 December 2008, the day Kamaluddin’s body was discovered motionless in the dormitory. The police had been called and his fellow workers had spilled onto the roads outside the dormitory, which housed about 700 workers, outraged at the way they were being treated.
Read also:
Mohamed Kamaluddin by The Online Citizen
Bangladeshi worker found dead in dorm by Today
3 more get chicken pox by The Straits Times
Family grieves as body of Bangladeshi who died of chickenpox arrives home by The Straits Times
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As the economy takes a dive, migrant workers are told there are no more jobs for them and many are left without any money, some relying on aid workers for their daily meals. In the following video, several workers speak about their plight. Most of them have since been repatriated – either with a few hundred dollars to bring home or nothing at all – after having paid agents thousands of dollars to work in Singapore and being exploited by unscrupulous employers.
50) prettyplace
///You just want to get into trouble….the problem is straight forward…..///
Posting a view point to does not concur with yous is ” just want to get into trouble” ?
48) Small Time Businessman
///// “Now that you’ve known, you are held accountable.”
Yeah, vote out PAP next election/////
Very predictable universal cure for all issues, ya?
47) Small Time Businessman
Firstly, I shall assume that “To Apek” refers to KopitiamApek and thus your post is directed at me
For clarity of whom I am replying to, I rather address you in full as Small Time Businessman , not Small or Time or Businessman or Business or Man
or any other abbreviated form.
///you know what is TOC all about, and you chose to come here.
Consider this scenario, you know a shop that sells things that you dont like, yet you still visit the shop repeatedly to tell the shop attendants that you dont like their things. What’s the point?////
You example of a shop is interesting but whether it is an accurate depiction of TOC is debatable.
“you know what is TOC all about” is but your view point, is that representative view of all in TOC that that is what TOC is all about?
49) silvester
besides MOM, ICA should also take steps to stem out these ali babas.
you correctly pointed out that this issue has been around, I believe not 9 years, but for decades.
years ago, there was a big poliltical blow up when the Thai govt threathened to send their war ship to SG when we rounded up a huge number of Thai ali baba workers.
there seems to be too many cracks in the border of this tiny island to slip thru.
46) Edmond Phon
The by product of success is a minority group of people who behave this way.
///we are quick to point fingers at our government.
The point is, how many of us take notice and give aid besides the occasional donations to charities?
Hopefully we can, as individuals, do more to help. Granted, The Online Citizen’s a great platform for such issues to be brought to attention. Now that you’ve known, you are held accountable.///
But sadly, when there are events that requires physically attendance, the turn up is pathetic. Hiding behind the keyboard and complaining is a favourite pasttimes for some
“you know what is TOC all about” is but your view point, is that representative view of all in TOC that that is what TOC is all about?
Tell me then, what is TOC to you
56) Small Time Businessman
TOC is an online forum.
#Kopi Tiam Apek….
You seem to take pieces of statements out of context to make your point,
You don’t seem to make fruitful siggestions but comment on comments.
And Voting out PAP….yeah perhaps it might cure all Singapore’s universal problems…Why Not….
They don’t seem to do much honestly. Except for what we get in any modern state…but their pay is exceptionally high tough.
And you make digressions far out wide that the initial gist of the matter reported by TOC gets diluted….mmmm…makes me wonder
“TOC is an online forum.”
Exactly. And in an online forum, we discuss issues. Period.
You said this: “But interestingly, with the internet, we now have a group of citizen journalists who go around searching and sensationalising such news, kick up some dust, feel heoroic for helping them by bringing awareness and then move on to the next items that is newsworthy.”
The journalists are just doing their job for their online forum
I re-read all the emails posted here again just now.
There are some negative comments about others here….eg ”just comments online, no action”. But by far & large, I am happy to see quite a few singaporeans are so compassionate :-)
There are quite a few singaporeans who want to build this city on fairness, justice.Thats nice.
Do remember these online sites are monitored by the authorities.
Its a good platform to the authorities to tell them how the people feel & how they feel the authorities should be acting…….caring people in singapore are saying ”we are supposed to be a 1st world society, so our message to the authorities is quite clear here….behave like a 1st world society towards others”.
Sure, it difficult to get things done. Its the system we are up against.
The civil servants (most anyway) just do their jobs & dont care about the background leading to the precarious situations the foreign workers find themselves stuck with.The civil servants are NOT attacking the CAUSE of the problems.
Civil servants are you reading this website? I am sure you are. Please hire more devoted people to work in the civil service. I say this because I had a bad experience many years back when I brought a worker to MOM to complain about not getting his salary.The officer was obviously by his tone & body language unhappy I brought the worker in. Perhaps it was just more work for the officer!
I quickly reminded the officer that he was supposed to be helping the worker, that he was there to ‘serve’ the public.That helped. If the worker faces such an officer on his own, he would be intimidated…… then where else can the worker turn to for help?
I should have recored the date & time & name of the officer at MOM; this is a nice time to mention a name!
A bit of background for those here who are less familiar & perhaps for the authorities to take notice too
—————————————————————————————————–
Foreign workers (FW) pay a large sum to get here to work … …about $6000.
(The chinese worker pays $9000! The sum varies.)
About $2000 each goes to the foreign agent, the local agent & the employer!
YES, some employers do collect from potential employees.This is an abuse of the system.
Of course the larger corporates, I think dont practice this, only unscrupulous employers!
Employers can ”employ” an FW, then after a while, for ‘whatever reason’ (hey, I dont like your face) dont like the FW, can send him back home.
Who profits? Everyone, including the employer who already pocketed $2000.
Who suffers, the FW who paid $6000, most of this borrowed back home & he cannot return home because he cant pay his debt as he was depending on his job to re-pay the debt.
In such a situation, the worker rather than face going home, runs a way & becomes an ”ali-baba” worker.
Of course MOM knows this happens & I believe has said to employers that they must not benefit from employing an FW.
To be fair MOM tried to do something…..but again woefully inadequate.
Unscrupulous agents & employers have already got around this…..the $2000 is no longer openly paid to employers… ….there are other ways around eg ”in kind” payments etc etc. The practice lives on.
So again, I say to MOM, look at the accredition route out of this mess.
After all we do accredit almost everything else in singapore…….we even have a love-making (match-making) accredition, why not one for the FW agents?
61) silvester
I must admit you do have a good understanding of the FW situation in SG. Well done and thanks for sharing. It is also good to get the facts of the situation correct as it helps the discussion on stay on track.
You rightly highlighted the black sheeps, the unscrupulous agents & employers who are making money by being registered as a construction company, but in reality operating as a labour exchange.
They exploit this desperation of the workers and get paid (you quoted 2k) per worker in the construction industry, as contractors
As registered contractor, when they successfully they bid for jobs, they get their FW quota entitlement (MYE) . However, they do no such construction work, They subcontract out everything, collect the payments from these desperate workers, and to add insult to injury, charge fee to the subcontractors who are dying for workers, and who are at the mercy of the contractor as only he hold the right to the FW entitlement.
thanks for the background information. i think it really clarify the plight of the workers. most singaporeans think the worst thing for FW is the low pay, long hours, poor working conditions. you just highlighted that it is worse than that.
For a singaporean, when a employer mistreats us, we just throw in the resignation letter and leave. For FWs, they have paid so much to come to work. No matter what comes, they just have to suck it up.
So it really depends on how lucky he is.
(i) employer treats him well, pay him his ‘low’ wages which actually translate to a sizable sum.
(ii) employer treats him badly- deducts his wages, verbally abuse him, force him to work around the clock w/o rest. Some workers cannot take it- so run away, try to go home, purposefully injure themselves so they can get out.
(iii) employer goes bankrupt due to crisis. somethings are unavoidable.
(iv) employer is out to cheat their money by employing them, take their money and kick them out after a while.
IMO, the general public understanding is focus on low wages etc.
no doubt it is low, but it is still something they are ok with becoz of exchange.
it is the rest of the abuses that are the problem- particularly 2&4.
And unlike low wages- which is a market issue that both sides agree on, abuses and cheating are outright wrong and there is no ambiguity on that.
>> 61. silvester
i was wondering one thing- where did you get the number of ali baba number from. ST, police website? seems quite high..
about your suggestion on accreditation- how will it exactly work and help the situation? most of the money changes hands in their home countries. can singapore really do anything about it?
not that i am suggesting you are wrong, but by questioning it, hopefully the idea will become more concrete!
and anyway, you deserve credit for being the first (and only) person who gave a suggestion, on top of commenting. if ‘online citizens’ do that more, this will transform TOC from an alternative information (where we receive ideas) to a alternative ideas sites (where we come up with alternative ideas to challenge the current approach) =)
58) prettyplace
///You seem to take pieces of statements out of context to make your point,///
how so, please elaborate
///You don’t seem to make fruitful siggestions but comment on comments.///
like than the universal solution of kicking out you know who. ?
////And Voting out PAP….yeah perhaps it might cure all Singapore’s universal problems…Why Not….////
which you echoed Small Time Businessman ‘s post #48
are these not digressions to you?
///They don’t seem to do much honestly. Except for what we get in any modern state…but their pay is exceptionally high tough.////
are these not digressions to you?
#59
////And you make digressions far out wide that the initial gist of the matter reported by TOC gets diluted….mmmm…makes me wonder////
I wonder too. who is digressing.
60) Small Time Businessman
///“TOC is an online forum.”
Exactly. And in an online forum, we discuss issues. Period.///
That I agree with you. Discuss. Period.
////The journalists are just doing their job for their online forum////
They are doing their job, also agree.
But to refresh your memory how we this got to this point of our debate,
@34) Small Time Businessman
you wrote
///without these free journalists, how will the volunteers know about the real plight of these foreign workers? SPH newspapers?///
read the exchanges from there, which ended with your evading of my question and instead you chose to comment
///you know what is TOC all about, and you chose to come here.///
///If you disapprove of what they are doing, then you should steer clear of TOC////
To quote again what you wrote, in online forum we discuss issues?
Can you please make up your mind?
“But interestingly, with the internet, we now have a group of citizen journalists who go around searching and sensationalising such news, kick up some dust, feel heoroic for helping them by bringing awareness and then move on to the next items that is newsworthy.”
if you can read what you wrote and understand your own english, I rest my case
#too much of Kopi lah u Apek….
67) Small Time Businessman
You have still not answered the original question. If you can’t or do not wish to, it is ok.
We agree to disagree.
68) prettyplace
///#too much of Kopi lah u Apek….///
add this to the other universal answers
There is another death of a foreigner (allegedly jumped down from building) at Fusionopolis yesterday at 2pm. Something must be terribly wrong for such a young and promising person to commit suicide, is it not?
Nothing was published in the newspapers but the Internet had a field day. Why was TOC not reporting this?
Is there a policy instructing main stream medias not to publish such sad news which may mar the image of Singapore?
Shouldn’t our citizens be made aware of what is going on in the community regarding survival and survivability – in the modern concrete jungle of survival of the fittest?
Looks like the suicide rate must be rising, otherwise why the black-out on such news?
May be this is also an indication that the quality of life has gone down, very much lower than say twenty years back, when the suicide rate was much lower?
Could this be the initial signal that the policy of “Progress at ALL Costs” will also reap a heavy price in terms of lives lost unnecessarily?
Correction: The incident happened not yesterday but rather last Thursday.
Hello All
Thanks KopitiamApek & RW for constructive comments.You guys also have alot of info ( I am learning too) & together we can only hope that the people in charge at MOM & elsewhere will read & constructively take notice too….as we are all here to make a change for the better. Frankly its NOT a wild attack on MOM & others & I hope they also see it that way.
Let me see if I can answer RW’ s question. How do I know its 20,000.
Certainly in 2001 when I had to deal with an ”ali-baba” case (help out), this was the number I came to know. My memory is pretty poor, but certainly it is a large number. What the number is today, I am afraid I dont know.
I know ( guess the cost) what it cost the govt bec I saw the whole process…..arrest, processing, jail, court hearing, re-patriation back home, ICA got involved in black-listing, police sending ‘offenders back & forth to court’ etc etc.
So it is certainly a big cost saver if the govt can stop ”ali-baba” cases from happening in the 1st place. I think quite alot of these cases can be prevented……..as I said if MOM as the 1st gate-keeper does its job….which I am suggesting is some form of accreditation of the agents.
After all we have accreditation of agents for Domestic Help Right?
So why not other workers? Yes women are most vulnerable, but so are men under these circumstances.
How the accredition takes place & what form…..that I supposed can be left to MOM to fine tune. I would suppose , look at what the govt is doing with accreditation of match-making agencies. The model is the same….weed out unscrupulous ones & let the genuine, fair ones remain. Or follow the system for Domestic Help.
So my idea is NOT so original, just stole it from other models.
Whats strange is WHY is MOM so slow to do this when there are models around already? Thats the most important question to ask.
there’s an article which i found very enlightening on Yawning Bread from a guest contributor, ‘Bruce’:
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/government-too-sucks-the-blood-and-sweat-of-foreign-workers/
I thought it was a great read and a good counterpoint to how the system stacks up against employers too.
I noticed that lorries and pick-ups in malaysia do not carry workers at the storage areas. my construction friend/boss told me that it is illegal to do so (can someone confirm this please?). if this is true, malaysia is certainly more advanced than singapore in this respect.
74) silvester
//So my idea is NOT so original, just stole it from other models.////
Radical innovation do not occur as frequently as adaptive innovation.
Most creative breakthrough are clever adaptations of existing technologies
You are on track. : )
in the video subtities “police no action no action”.
Hi All
I am not terribly good with computers.
Just realised there is a U-tube video ”plight of migrant workers” on this site.
Watched it & its probably a true reflection of what the conditions are like; conditions that I have only HEARD about all these years.
Congrats to TWC2 for the video………now the whole world can see it.
Hope MOM is also watching.
For those of us here who cant just watch & do nothing…….please look at TWC2 & other sites like HOME to see if you can do a little to help.
These non-profit organisations are always looking for volunteers to help out….in any way you can.
I myself have volunteered a little while back , spoke to them & am waiting for them to call me up for some active service :-)
I guess they want to con foreign workers outta their thousands of dollars & thus, brought them here even if there is no work for them. They do not care if this leads to overcrowding & social problems & most importantly, conning the poor foreigners outta their money & leaving them in the middle of nowhere.
The system here stinks big time.
These are signs that our country is decading and sinking from within. We do not need an external enemy as we had one very big one that is home made.The money we spent on defence is just for show and similarly those millions dollar ministers. I sincerely believed that we are storing problems for the future and one day we SinKaporean will have to pay for it. I just hoped that those responsible are around when the bills come in. Bangladeshi workers are also human although they may be poor. We had truly lost all decency as a human. As a nation, we will continue to be a country of immigrants as local born do not feel they belong except if one is part of the establishment. How many PAP members are there in SinKapore? I know for a fact, that PAP membership is by invitation only. To join the magic circle, one need a sponsor and willing to sacrifice one principles and do what one is told. Greed or integrity?