Singapore’s coronavirus curbs are easing, but not for migrant workers living in dorms

Nearly five months of living in lockdown-like conditions is taking its toll on Singapore’s more than 300,000 low-wage migrant workers

Those without a job to go to spend much of their day confined to their compounds – and are increasingly looking for a way out, activists say

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Migrant workers pictured in their dormitory room in Singapore on August 18. Photo: EPA

Published: 4:00pm, 9 Sep 2020Updated: 9:38pm, 9 Sep 2020

With restaurants and shopping centres bustling, pre-pandemic life is slowly returning for people in Singapore – except for the more than 300,000 migrant workers who make up much of the city’s low-wage workforce.

Since April, these workers have been confined to their residences with limited exceptions for work. After an extensive testing and quarantine campaign, the government cleared the dormitories where most of these workers live of Covid-19 in August, letting residents leave for several “essential errands,” like court appearances and doctor’s appointments.

The government said last month it was working toward relaxing more rules for workers. Those plans are now under threat, with new virus clusters emerging in the dorms, where workers from China, India, Indonesia and elsewhere share bunks and tight living spaces.

“Some days I feel very upset and can’t take it,” said Mohd Al Imran, a Bangladeshi worker with a local engineering firm. After months of confinement in the dorms, he got Covid-19 anyway. He was sent to a coronavirus care facility and said it was “very free” by comparison. “At the dorm you can’t go out from your room,” he said in a text message. “They treat it like a prison.”

A migrant worker brushes his teeth as another prepares to cook at a wash area in their dormitory room in Singapore on August 18. Photo: EPA

Singapore has been saying it is taking appropriate measures, considering that migrant workers have accounted for nearly 95 per cent of the city’s coronavirus cases. But the resurgence, so soon after the dorms were declared virus-free, is raising questions about whether Singapore’s conditions for its low-wage work force undermine the efforts to stamp it out.

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Singapore’s coronavirus curbs are easing, but not for migrant workers living in dorms

Nearly five months of living in lockdown-like conditions is taking its toll on Singapore’s more than 300,000 low-wage migrant workers Those without a job to go to spend much of their day confined to their compounds – and are increasingly looking for a way out, activists say

Nearly five months of living in lockdown-like conditions is taking its toll on Singapore’s more than 300,000 low-wage migrant workers

Those without a job to go to spend much of their day confined to their compounds – and are increasingly looking for a way out, activists say