Coronavirus Singapore: migrant worker’s self harm raises concerns over mental health toll

The man was pictured in bloodstained clothing at the foot of a stairwell in a migrant workers’ dormitory

His plight has fuelled concerns about the mental toll of lockdowns imposed on the city state’s low-wage workers

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Migrant workers rest at an isolation facility in a dormitory as they wait for the results of their coronavirus tests in May. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:47pm, 5 Aug 2020Updated: 9:14pm, 5 Aug 2020

A migrant in Singapore who self-harmed and was pictured bloodied in a stairwell has heightened concerns over the mental health of thousands of low-paid workers confined to dormitories in the city state because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In April, Singapore sealed off sprawling housing blocks where its vast population of mainly South Asian labourers live in crowded bunk rooms, in an effort to ring-fence a surge in virus cases among the workers.

Four months on, some dormitories remain under quarantine, and even migrants who have been declared virus-free have had their movements restricted and face uncertainty over the jobs on which their families back home depend.

Rights groups say this has taken a heavy mental toll on workers, pointing to recent reports that migrants have been detained under the mental health act after videos showed them perched precariously on rooftops and high window ledges.

Migrant workers pictured outside their rooms at a dormitory in Singapore that was declared an isolation area in April. Photo: Getty Images

“We’ve heard of the extreme distress because of the inability to provide for families, inability to service debts to money lenders and banks and inability to fund medical care for children and elderly parents,” said Deborah Fordyce, president of migrant rights group, Transient Workers Count Too.

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