Many foreign workers from third world countries borrowed heavily or sold their belongings to pay unscrupulous recruiting agents to find them good jobs overseas. Before they can even start to earn a decent income, they are already heavily in debt.
However, arriving upon foreign shores, they are in for a shock! Instead of jobs they were promised, they find themselves at the mercy of the local HR contractors. Their passports are taken away, "held for safekeeping", and they were then contracted out to local employers, earning meagre pay but working long hours and sometimes everyday without rest. They have no rights compared to the locals. They cannot even afford to get sick, because being sick gets them no pay. Accommodation provided for are unsuitable, unhygenic and most of the time extremely overcrowded.
Work contracts last for three years, during which they cannot go home least they be penalised.
Work levies imposed by the government on the recruitment of foreign workers, meant to be paid for by the employers are deducted from the foreign workers' salaries plus other administrative fees, leaving almost nothing for their own daily survival, not to mention sending home much needed money to their families.
Some of the braver ones try to break free but end up being illegals. Those staying in overcrowded accomodations tolerate living close together without any privacy. Fights break out among them when tolerance snapped.
At the end of their contracts, they go home, defeated, dejected, penniless and still in debt.
Where is the justice for those struggling for survival?
Where is the conscience of the people who trade in other people for their own profits?
Vicki Mah, Social Worker
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