Singapore’s cramped migrant worker dorms a ‘perfect storm’ for rising coronavirus infections
- Some 200,000 low-wage foreign workers live in dormitories that pack up to 20 men in a single room, NGOs say
- As Covid-19 infections rise among migrant workers, activists are urging authorities to boost their living standards and ensure they can practise safe distancing
Low-wage migrant workers make up about one-sixth of Singapore’s 5.7 million population, and non-governmental organisations estimate that about 200,000 of them sleep in dormitories that house 12 to 20 men in each room.
“The notion of safe distancing in the room itself is laughable. All the distancing [they] do outside the rooms would not make much difference,” said the Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) NGO on their website.
Apart from sharing sleeping quarters, workers also share toilets and eating areas with dozens of others, said Luke Tan, case work manager at Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).
Local media reports have highlighted poor living conditions in some dorms, ranging from kitchens infested with cockroaches to overflowing urinals. Some workers told The Straits Times that toilets in their dorms were not disinfected, and trash was not regularly cleared.
“These factors create a perfect storm for massive rapid infection,” Tan said.