By Ang Yiying
THE number of cases of violence against spouses involving
immigrants here has gone up, a leading anti-domestic violence
agency said on Thursday.
Providing Alternatives to Violence (Pave) has handled about 240
new spousal abuse cases a year for the past two financial years. Of
these, the proportion of cases involving those born overseas has
risen from 12 per cent to 22 per cent.
There were a total of 85 such cases over the two years. The bulk
of them - 70 - involved the agency counselling abused wives. In one
case it helped an abused husband, and it also counselled 14
husbands who had abused their wives.
Pave defines immigrants as those who were born overseas,
regardless of how long they have been living here or whether they
have attained Singapore permanent resident or citizen status. They
could be married to foreign-born or Singapore-born spouses.
It presented the data on Thursday during a half-day symposium
which it jointly organised with the Centre for Social Development
Asia, which is based at the National University of Singapore.
It said that the dynamics of abuse are similar whether victims
are born locally or overseas, but the latter group may face more
barriers in getting help.
They may perceive that there is discrimination against them as
they are not born here, or face isolation or the lack of a social
support network. One particularly vulnerable group are wives on
social visit passes who may be threatened with deportation by their
husbands.
Pave's head of family development and senior social worker Seah
Kheng Yeow said at the event on NUS' Kent Ridge Campus that there
was a need to make public education and outreach more accessible to
immigrants. This could include translation of resource materials
into their native languages or reaching out to them through
existing activities held by residents' committees.