SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:29pm IST
A group of around 100 Bangladeshi migrant workers gathered
outside Singapore's labour ministry on Friday, urging the
government to give them work and retrieve overdue pay after they
were laid off by shipping firms.
Protests are rare in Singapore, where public speeches and
demonstrations are banned unless they are approved by the
government, or take place at a designated place called Speaker's
Corner.
A representative for the Bangladeshi workers said they were
promised a monthly salary of at least S$400 and a work permit of 2
years. But with no work or pay for 4 months, they felt they were in
danger of being deported.
"We don't want to go back to Bangladesh. We take loan, we cannot
pay, we die," said Rahman, who gave up his farming job in
Bangladesh and took a loan of S$7000 from money lenders back home
to pay an agent fee to work in Singapore.
Fifty workers gathered at the ministry earlier this month.
Local advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too said such
gatherings would become more common in Singapore as workers were
not being fed enough and were just sitting in dormitories, amid
Singapore's worst ever recession.
"The mood is that we are seeing a lot of people coming forward
-- hundreds -- they don't have work," said the group's Shelley
Thio. "We are going to see a lot more of it -- they are being
shortchanged."
Singapore's shipyard, construction and manufacturing industries
were once red hot, hiring almost 800,000 migrants in 2007. But as
the economy slid into recession last year, demand for labour dived
and major projects were cancelled or delayed.
"If developers can't get money to pay construction companies,
subcontractors down the line will get affected too," said Chew Chin
Hui, who heads a local building firm.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-38247620090227
