Coronavirus: foreign workers ‘safer in Singapore’ than elsewhere, says minister
- Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said foreign workers, who account for 60 per cent of Singapore’s infections, are appreciative of efforts to assist them
- Singapore has overtaken Indonesia in Covid-19 infections and now has the most cases in Southeast Asia, reporting an additional 596 on Sunday
The workers from overseas are “appreciative” of efforts that range from relieving overcrowding in current facilities, and measures to provide them with medical attention, food and remittance services, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in a Facebook post. Singapore is speeding up construction of additional dormitories, he said.
“Accommodation for foreign workers, especially construction workers, is getting top attention,” Khaw said. Lodgings which are being accelerated were originally meant for workers at the peak of building Changi Airport’s Terminal 5. “Meanwhile, they can help relieve the crowding in existing foreign workers dorms,” he said.
“I know our foreign workers are appreciative of the efforts,” Khaw said. “They know that they are safer in Singapore now, than elsewhere, even at home.”
On Saturday, it saw the largest single-day spike of 942 cases. Infections among foreign workers now account for over 60 per cent of the country’s total of 6,588 cases.
Singapore has tightened entry rules, mandated masks, poured billions of dollars into the economy and imposed a weeks-long partial lockdown to contain the outbreak.
The outbreak in Singapore, which has 5.7 million people, has exposed the poor conditions that many migrant workers live in. There were about 981,000 work permit holders in the city state as of June 2019, with about 284,000 in the construction sector.
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Over 200,000 foreign workers live in 43 dormitories. Most are housed in crowded and unhygienic quarters, typically with 10 to 12 people sharing a room, making social distancing harder to enforce. Thirteen dormitory complexes linked to virus clusters have been isolated, meaning workers will not be allowed to leave their rooms for 14 days.
Manpower Minister Josephine Teo has vowed to raise standards of living in dormitories. Doing so is “not only the right thing to do but also in our own interests”, she said. “We should be willing to accept the higher costs that come with higher standards.”
To curb transmissions, authorities have shifted thousands of workers employed in essential services such as logistics, transport and construction who were found to be free of the virus to temporary housing facilities. They include vacant military camps, public housing units and floating lodgings commonly used in the marine and offshore industry.
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Sports halls in the Singapore Sports Hub, a sporting venue that has played host to the Women’s Tennis Association finals, will be converted as a temporary accommodation to house virus-free workers. The government is also studying using cruise ships to temporarily house foreign workers who have recovered from the coronavirus and tested negative.
