Serious List of Foreign Worker Dormitories In Singapore

[Kee Chew]

 

[Kee Chew]

FEDA = Foreign Employee Dormitories Act ???

 

[rocket]

You going to offer yourself at these dormitories

 

[Kee Chew]

ST 25 April 2020

PUBLISHED
11 HOURS AGO
UPDATED
10 HOURS AGO
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Cara Wong



SINGAPORE - With an inter-agency task force moving quickly to address the needs of migrant workers in big dormitories, the challenge now is to look out for migrant workers in smaller housing facilities as they are scattered all over the island in groups of varying sizes.

There are more than 1,100 housing facilities like factory-converted dormitories that cater to workers, and a coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGO) and ground-up initiatives have taken on the task of assisting them, Mr Bernard Menon, executive director of Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), told The Straits Times.

While the inter-agency task force on foreign worker dormitory management takes charge of the situation at purpose-built dormitories, NGOs and the ground-up initiatives have fanned out to help those living in smaller housing facilities, said Mr Menon.

Their priority is to address the basic needs of these migrant workers, such as catering food and providing sanitary products such as soap, shaving kits, laundry detergent and masks.

"Without being able to clean, shower... it would be very difficult for migrant workers to start to look at other things like safe distancing, watching their health," said Mr Menon, speaking to ST's assistant video editor Olivia Quay and multimedia correspondent Hairianto Diman on Friday (April 24) in ST's The Big Story.

His comments came as the foreign worker community here has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 2,600 migrant workers staying at large dormitories have been infected. There are about 200,000 migrant workers at large purpose-built dormitories.

But a growing worry is the increasing numbers of infected foreign workers who reside in other places like factory-converted dormitories or even shophouses.

The number of infected foreign workers who live outside dormitories had risen to 30 new cases on Thursday, a more than 50 per cent jump from last week's average of 19 new cases per day.

Smaller dormitories can house anywhere from 10 workers to more than 900, and are scattered all around the island, he added, noting that these logistical challenges compound the situation.

This is unlike the 43 purpose-built dormitories here, which are known to house between 3,000 and 25,000 residents each.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...d=20&cx_testVariant=cx_2&cx_artPos=3#cxrecs_s

 

[Kee Chew]

 

[bobby]

 

[Kee Chew]

You going to offer yourself at these dormitories

my search so far above got 43 so called purpose built Dormitories.
many many Converted types Not under the above List.
just curious where and what are those Profiteers So called Operators doing
for the Foreign Workers Tenants now?
Operators consider part of the problem or part of the solution ?
who are the people on the Food Chain behind these 43 Dormitories why they need to be on the Food Chain ?
why are Outside NGO stepping in instead of the Operators ?
Strange happennings.

 

[Kee Chew]

Half Cooked Type of Reporting
23 April 2020

 

[melzp]

my search so far above got 43 so called purpose built Dormitories.
many many Converted types Not under the above List.
just curious where and what are those Profiteers So called Operators doing
for the Foreign Workers Tenants now?
Operators consider part of the problem or part of the solution ?
who are the people on the Food Chain behind these 43 Dormitories why they need to be on the Food Chain ?
why are Outside NGO stepping in instead of the Operators ?
Strange happennings.

You sure heard of this BIG one call MASTEC....something like this.
Or hv they change name ?

 

[Kee Chew]

Change of name ? very common.

 

[Kee Chew]

 

[Kee Chew]

SINGAPORE - Almost two-thirds of the 35 dormitory operators here are punished each year for breaching dormitory licensing conditions under the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act (Feda).

This adds up to about 20 operators, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said in Parliament on Monday (May 4). These 35 firms run the 43 purpose-built dormitories housing some 200,000 foreign workers.

Outside of large dormitories, an average of 1,200 employers a year have also been punished for providing unacceptable accommodation for their workers, said Mrs Teo, responding to questions from MPs, including Workers' Party MP Png Eng Huat (Hougang), who asked about the virus outbreak among foreign workers.

She told the House that accommodation standards for migrant workers have become better over the years, but acknowledged that further improvements could be made.

The living conditions in these large dormitories have been under scrutiny in recent weeks as the number of workers infected with Covid-19 rises.

"We will see how standards can be raised, but keep in mind there are also older dorms which perhaps might not have reached these standards yet," said Mrs Teo, after showing MPs pictures of living conditions in newer dormitories.

The minister said that when lapses are found, these must be rectified immediately. Dorm operators can be fined up to $50,000, jailed for up to a year, or both for such offences.

For other housing types, employers can be fined up to $10,000, face a jail term of up to one year, or both under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

She pointed out that her ministry has about 100 dormitory inspectors who work under the supervision of the Commissioner for Foreign Employee Dormitories, two deputy commissioners and eight assistant commissioners. Last year, these officers conducted 1,200 inspections and 3,000 investigations across the different housing types in which foreign workers in Singapore are accommodated.

Apart from the 200,000 workers housed in large dormitories, there are about 95,000 workers living in factory-converted dormitories. Most of these workers are from the construction, marine and process sectors.

Another 20,000 workers are housed in temporary quarters on construction sites.

 

[Kee Chew]

There are also 85,000 work permit and S Pass holders from the construction sector who live in HDB flats, private residential premises and other sites.

While the Covid-19 situation in large dormitories are "largely stable now", the situation in factory-converted dormitories and quarters at construction sites presents a mixed picture "and (is) taking up much bandwidth".

Responding to concerns raised by MPs, Mrs Teo said the Government has "taken steps to raise the housing standards of our migrant workers" over the years.

It passed Feda in 2015, which imposes higher standards on dormitories that accommodate 1,000 or more workers - the Act requires recreational facilities to be provided, as well as amenities like mini-marts and Wi-Fi in common areas.

"They are also required to have health facilities like sickbays or isolation rooms and draw up contingency plans for quarantine arrangements," she said, adding that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had asked all Feda-licensed dormitories to set aside at least 10 quarantine rooms each in February, which have proved useful for isolating close contacts in facilities with few infected workers.

 

[Kee Chew]

For smaller accommodation types that are not covered under Feda, they have to comply with regulations under different agencies, she said.

Mrs Teo also took MPs through how workers came to be housed in such large dormitories, noting that as more construction workers from China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India came to Singapore in the early 1990s, the Government allocated land for self-contained dormitories with recreational facilities to be built.

Explaining the thinking behind housing them in these communal facilities, she said: "One important consideration was what would a migrant worker want at the end of the work day, if he cannot be with his family? Well, it is to be with his friends, cook a meal he would like, practise his religious beliefs."

But she also said that such environments now carry the risk of significant Covid-19 transmission, and there was a need to relook how people interact in homes and workplaces.

"What changes will be effective in reducing the transmission risks? Will these changes require different space requirements and technical standards or stronger regulatory levers that Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) asked about?" she said.

 

[Kee Chew]

"When this is over, we will reflect and thoroughly look into areas where we could have done better, so that we will be better prepared the next time."

She told members that Singapore has a responsibility to its migrant workers, many of whom have made personal sacrifices to come to work in Singapore and contribute to its development.

"We will do everything within our means to make sure that they too win the fight against Covid-19, and reunite with their families in time to come," she said.

 

[knowwhatyouwantinlife]

What a great job...maximum pay zero accountability...

 

[Kee Chew]

 

[myfoot123]

I believed some of the politicians or ex-politicians have invested in those dorms and started to earn revenue from those dorm workers to service the politicians' retirement years. Thus the reason why JOsephine was reluctant to bring those "operators" to tasks. If this is not conflict of interest, what is?