In Singapore, foreign workers who had contact with coronavirus patient were locked in dorm room

The infected worker, who is a Chinese national, was sent to the hospital on April 18 after developing a fever

‘We have no choice but to play it safe. I have 800 workers to take care of here, and they have 800 plus families to answer to,’ manager says

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It was reported that 21 migrant workers staying at Joylicious dormitory were locked in their room. Photo: Facebook

Published: 12:59pm, 22 Apr 2020Updated: 9:38am, 23 Apr 2020

In Singapore, a manager of a dormitory that came under fire on Tuesday for locking 20 foreign workers in their room after one of them tested positive for Covid-19 said the facility had “no choice” to protect the safety of the other 800 workers living there.

The 35-year-old manager of Joylicious dormitory, who wanted to be known only as Mr Thng, said: “We have no choice but to play it safe. I have 800 workers to take care of here, and they have 800 plus families to answer to. [We can’t allow] one black sheep to cause this whole thing [to spin out of control].”

Migrant workers rights group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) said on its Facebook page on Tuesday that the men had been locked up since April 17 after receiving what they called a “distress call” from the men.

But Mr Thng said they had in fact been locked in the room for “less than 24 hours”, and there were 20 workers, not 21 workers as TWC2 had claimed.

The reason the men remained locked in the room was that the dormitory’s management needed time to prepare a new space on another floor for the workers to stay in, this time with a toilet attached, unlike the previous room, Mr Thng said.