Illegal barbers raided by MOM officers
NABBED: One of the four foreign workers who was allowed to collect his belongings before being led away.
By Fabian Koh
The New Paper
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Hair one minute, gone the next.
Foreign workers who had set up their own makeshift barber stalls under the Bartley Road East viaduct scrambled for cover when the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) raided the area on Sunday.
An MOM spokesman said two Bangladeshi and two Indian nationals were arrested for breaching Work Permit conditions.
The New Paper visited the area after receiving complaints from shops at the nearby Kaki Bukit Avenue 3 industrial area.
One reader who called the TNP hotline said the makeshift stalls were stealing business from legitimate barbers nearby and were also leaving a mess.
National Environment Agency (NEA) officers were on the scene at 11.40am conducting enforcement checks.
The NEA team spotted six foreign workers conducting their business, and rounded them up. Two escaped.
The four caught were issued summons for offences under the Environmental Public Health (Public Cleansing) Regulations.
Offenders can be fined up to $1,000.
The same foreign workers then had a double whammy when MOM officers arrived in a convoy of two vans and a car.
The workers were lined up along the pavement - they were issued summons by the NEA, then handcuffed and arrested by MOM.
The MOM spokesman said that foreign workers should only work for the employer specified in their work permit.
They should not be self-employed or moonlight.
Those caught doing so will face a fine not exceeding $15,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both.
The makeshift stalls were located under a viaduct, on the road divider along Kaki Bukit Avenue 3.
Each of the illegal barber stalls was a simple set-up consisting of just a stool on a canvas mat, weighed down by stones at the four corners.
They were all well-equipped with battery-operated shavers, mirrors, spray bottles, bottles of shaving foam and hair gel.
The haircuts are said to have cost $4 per worker.
TNP understands the arrested men were from the foreign workers dormitory across the road.
The four men were handcuffed, and taken away to collect their belongings from their stalls, before being put in a van and driven off.
