Flights home haunt B'desh workers in Singapore
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Munima Sultana from Singapore
A single worry, which is now haunting hundreds of Bangladeshi workers in Singapore, is nobody knows who would be asked next morning to take the next flight home.
Everyday 20 to 50 Bangladeshi workers are being sent home by different flights. Singapore employers have attributed it to the aftereffect of global economic recession.
But sources said it was because more workers than the actual demand landed in the Singapore job market.
Usually recruiting agents place the job demand in consultation with the employer companies, which the Bangladesh High Commission certifies after inspection.
A nominal number of workers also come here directly with the help of their relatives and friends.
Sources said the workers being deported were brought here during the last one-and-a-half years before the global recession and were issued work permits with validity of two years. But they were kept idle for the first few months due to non-availability of jobs. Later the employers tried to manage the situation.
The workers' worry has intensified since the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of Singapore stepped up ground operation to detect the employers involved in illegal employment, providing unacceptable accommodation and failing to pay salaries.
The MOM has instructed the employers, who have no work for their workers, to continue paying their salaries or cancel the work permits and send them home.
Though protests are rare in Singapore, MOM's investigation revealed deprivation of foreign workers by directors of six marine companies. These companies are barge builder Tipper Corporation, S1 Engineering, Gates Offshore, Goldrich Venture, SUPNB Engineering and Ensure Engineering, linked with depriving some Bangladeshi workers of their dues.
The MOM also posted a press release on its website which says the ministry assisted the affected foreign workers in getting their salaries and facilitated repatriation of the majority of the workers. It also said a small number of them (about 50 workers) were able to find alternative employment in the marine sector and were thus granted work permits to work under their new employer.
However, the victim workers alleged that despite clear instruction to pay all dues of the workers, a number of employers were sending them back without clearing their payments.
The workers who have already received flight dates from the employers told this correspondent that the money paid by the employers were not enough to repay their loans they borrowed back home.
One Nuruzzaman said 27 workers of Asia Link were sent back to Bangladesh Sunday night and his name was included in the list of 17 others.
He said many of them went to the Bangladesh High Commission to seek help in getting their dues from the employers. But he did not get any positive response from the concerned department of the Bangladesh mission.
In the second week of March, some 49 poor and deprived workers of Asia Link demonstrated in front of the MOM and the High Commission's labour wing. But the High Commission sent them back after holding talks with their employer and agent Nur Nabi. The workers alleged since then the High Commission has not been responding to their calls.
A Bangladesh High Commission spokesperson, however, claimed that the MOM action against some employers came following a letter issued from the mission in connection with complaints made by some Bangladeshi workers in last December. When asked about the compensation for the victim workers after charges brought against the employers, the spokesperson said the high commission was trying to realise the insurance money for the workers so that they can cope up with their financial losses.
A single worry, which is now haunting hundreds of Bangladeshi workers in Singapore, is nobody knows who would be asked next morning to take the next flight home.
Everyday 20 to 50 Bangladeshi workers are being sent home by different flights. Singapore employers have attributed it to the aftereffect of global economic recession.
But sources said it was because more workers than the actual demand landed in the Singapore job market.
Usually recruiting agents place the job demand in consultation with the employer companies, which the Bangladesh High Commission certifies after inspection.
A nominal number of workers also come here directly with the help of their relatives and friends.
Sources said the workers being deported were brought here during the last one-and-a-half years before the global recession and were issued work permits with validity of two years. But they were kept idle for the first few months due to non-availability of jobs. Later the employers tried to manage the situation.
The workers' worry has intensified since the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of Singapore stepped up ground operation to detect the employers involved in illegal employment, providing unacceptable accommodation and failing to pay salaries.
The MOM has instructed the employers, who have no work for their workers, to continue paying their salaries or cancel the work permits and send them home.
Though protests are rare in Singapore, MOM's investigation revealed deprivation of foreign workers by directors of six marine companies. These companies are barge builder Tipper Corporation, S1 Engineering, Gates Offshore, Goldrich Venture, SUPNB Engineering and Ensure Engineering, linked with depriving some Bangladeshi workers of their dues.
The MOM also posted a press release on its website which says the ministry assisted the affected foreign workers in getting their salaries and facilitated repatriation of the majority of the workers. It also said a small number of them (about 50 workers) were able to find alternative employment in the marine sector and were thus granted work permits to work under their new employer.
However, the victim workers alleged that despite clear instruction to pay all dues of the workers, a number of employers were sending them back without clearing their payments.
The workers who have already received flight dates from the employers told this correspondent that the money paid by the employers were not enough to repay their loans they borrowed back home.
One Nuruzzaman said 27 workers of Asia Link were sent back to Bangladesh Sunday night and his name was included in the list of 17 others.
He said many of them went to the Bangladesh High Commission to seek help in getting their dues from the employers. But he did not get any positive response from the concerned department of the Bangladesh mission.
In the second week of March, some 49 poor and deprived workers of Asia Link demonstrated in front of the MOM and the High Commission's labour wing. But the High Commission sent them back after holding talks with their employer and agent Nur Nabi. The workers alleged since then the High Commission has not been responding to their calls.
A Bangladesh High Commission spokesperson, however, claimed that the MOM action against some employers came following a letter issued from the mission in connection with complaints made by some Bangladeshi workers in last December. When asked about the compensation for the victim workers after charges brought against the employers, the spokesperson said the high commission was trying to realise the insurance money for the workers so that they can cope up with their financial losses.