SINGAPORE – Singapore will from next week begin easing movement restrictions on migrant workers living in dormitories, said authorities today, over a year after they were implemented to curb coronavirus outbreaks.
The vast, self-contained dormitory complexes are home to more than 200,000 workers, mainly from South Asia, who work in jobs like construction and maintenance.
Covid-19 outbreaks tore through the sites in the early stages of the pandemic, shining a harsh spotlight on the prosperous city state’s treatment of the low-paid migrants.
Authorities imposed movement curbs in April last year, and since then, the workers have, for the most part, only been allowed to travel between their dorms and places of work.
Under a pilot programme to launch next Monday, up to 500 vaccinated workers will be allowed to visit selected locations for six hours each week, said the Labour Ministry.
They will need to take a Covid-19 test before the visit, and three days afterwards, with the scheme to be evaluated after a month, it said.
It said the decision was taken after vaccination rates among workers living in dorms reached over 90%.
However, Alex Au, vice-president of migrant rights group Transient Workers Count Too, criticised the plan as not going far enough, as so few workers will be able to participate.
“It’s a drop in the ocean,” he told AFP.
“It is way too timid; it’s actually going to cause more frustration.”
The majority of Singapore’s infections have been among migrant workers.
But, the country has been largely successful at keeping its outbreak in check, reporting only about 70,000 cases and 55 deaths.
There has been an uptick in recent weeks driven by the more contagious Delta variant, but most infections have been outside workers’ dorms. – AFP, September 9, 2021
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