"Singapore NGOs call for rethink of migrant workers' salaries, health care and recruitment fees", 31 May 2020

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Workers interviewed for this article said they were more concerned about exorbitant recruitment fees, low wages and poor access to health care.... While these issues also affect migrant workers elsewhere, expectations are higher that Singapore, a developed and affluent country, would do more for this group.

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Over the past decade, Singapore's demand for cheap foreign labour has fuelled the growth of an exploitative recruitment system. [...]

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Desiree Leong, a case worker for the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), said ..."[t]here must be greater enforcement to deter excesses, rather than requiring victimised workers to prove their complaints," Leong said, adding that "if the government does not step up, private stakeholders won't address this market failure and root out the problem of debt in the migrant labour market."

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Michael Cheah, executive director of Healthserve, an NGO that focuses on migrant-worker health care, said it was still common for many employers to play down the toll that hard labour takes on workers' health, or to accuse workers of slacking off by feigning illness.

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Cheah said smaller labour suppliers may also be unwilling to pay for workers' medical care if the injury was sustained while they were subcontracted to other firms' worksites.

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...James of HOME said the city state cannot go back to business as usual without re-evaluating attitudes and policies that discriminate against migrant workers.

"Given the evident gaps between policy and practice, the state cannot leave it only to employers to ensure the well-being of workers. More regulatory and enforcement oversight is needed," she said.