Tommy Koh: The way Singapore treats its foreign workers is not First World but Third World
Singapore—Retired diplomat Tommy Koh, who made some irate last year with the comment that ‘Singapore is a first world nation with third world citizens,’ has used the same words to describe how Singapore treats the country’s migrant workers.
On his
Facebook page on Monday morning (April 6), he wrote,
“The way Singapore treats its foreign workers is not First World but Third World. The government has allowed their employers to transport them in flat bed trucks with no seats. They stay in overcrowded dormitories and are packed likes sardines with 12 persons to a room. The dormitories are not clean or sanitary. The dormitories were like a time bomb waiting to explode. They have now exploded with many infected workers. Singapore should treat this as a wake up call to treat our indispensable foreign workers like a First World country should and not in the disgraceful way in which they are treated now. I feel angry when I see foreign workers sitting on the ground eating their lunch. I see exhausted foreign workers stretched out on the ground to rest.”
