A chasm revives the debate on the rights of migrant workers in Singapore

When a 3 -meter (10 feet) chasm on a lively road from Singapore swallowed a black oil on Saturday, a group of workers from a nearby construction site has entered action.

Seizing a rope of their site, they threw him into the abyss towards the driver, who had made his way at that time.

In less than five minutes, they managed to put it in safety.

“I was afraid, but each feeling (sic) was that this woman had to be saved first,” said the foreman of the Suppiah Pitchai Udaiyappan construction site.

Images of the incident quickly became viral on social networks, many greeting workers as heroes.

Mr. Udaiyappan and his team are “migrant workers” – a term used in Singapore to describe the 1.17 million workers who come in the rich state of the city of low -income countries such as Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.

A large majority of them occupy low-remuneration and highly intensity jobs that Singaporeans avoid.

This is not the first time that migrant workers have been used for first workers to save lives in Singapore. In April, four of them helped save the children trapped in a shophouse after a fire.

Their recent actions have relaunched a debate on rights – or their absence – of low wages workers in Singapore.

Singapore’s rapidly growing saving economy is built on the back of these workers who make up almost three-quarters of the country’s foreign workforce. Many of them work in sectors such as construction, marine shipyards and manufacturing.

Singapore does not have a minimum wage for migrant workers, which means that some can earn as little as $ 300 ($ 233; £ 175) per month according to advocacy groups. They live in crowded dormitories which are often located far from the residential areas.

They are also often subject to abuse by recruitment agencies and their employers, in particular overwork, unpaid workforce and bad living conditions. These problems are well documented, but activists say that little has changed over the years.

“Today, you are celebrating them. Tomorrow, you will come back to generalize them in the form of cheaters, liars and dirty,” wrote Suraendher Kumarr on Instagram, in response to Sinkhole incident.

During the pandemic cochem in 2020, their living conditions were tabled after workers’ dormitories emerged as a home in virus, hundreds of workers testing daily.

This sparked a public discussion on their conditions – which the defenders warned for decades – and the authorities then took measures to improve dorm standards.

Another persistent problem, on which the chasm incident again threw a projector, is the use of flat bed trucks to transport these workers.

“There is something poignant in the fact that migrant workers, probably transported on the back of trucks, put themselves in four to save a Singaporean in his car,” said Kumarr, who is a member of rights group workers.

Singapore laws prohibit people from traveling on the freight bridges of these trucks – except in a medical emergency. But it is authorized if they are used by the owners of the trucks.

Sometimes up to 12 workers are packed at the back of a flat truck without a seat belt. This is an economical option for many employers who also use trucks to transport goods.

But that has led to several accidents, some involving deaths.

In April 2021, two foreign workers died and more than a dozen were injured after the truck they were crushed in a stationary plateau truck.

In 2024, at least four workers were killed and more than 400 injured in similar accidents.

Activists have long been pressure to prohibit this mode of transport – the question has also been discussed repeatedly in Parliament – but few has changed.

The Singapore government repeatedly claims that even if it has encouraged businesses to transport workers on buses, a pure and simple ban on these trucks is not possible for small businesses.

“Many of them could be forced to close, which has caused their jobs to be lost,” workers, local and foreign, to lose their jobs, “said a high Minister of State in February.

“This will also lead to delays in critical projects such as (public housing), schools, hospitals and lines (train), and will result in higher costs for Singaporeans.”

Activists criticize the authorities for having reduced workers’ rights to simple economic considerations, noting that other countries that depend strongly on migrant workers, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have prohibited the transport of people on trucks.

The samples collected from foreign workers could be used to subsidize other modes of transport without transmitting costs to businesses and consumers, suggested Mr. Kumarr.

The government’s rhetoric “preserves the status quo (and) establishes a disproportionate power in the hands of employers, on the life and livelihood of migrant workers,” said Jaya Anil Kumar, principal researcher with the humanitarian organization for the economy of migration, another organization that defends migrants’ rights.

The prohibition of truck rides is only one in a list of changes that lawyers have requested, in particular a decent salary, stronger denunciation protections and subsidized health care.

Despite the decades of their lives in Singapore, these workers also have no way to strive due to the type of work permit they hold, who are different from those of foreign professionals and leaders.

They cannot qualify for permanent residence, no matter how long they have worked in the country. Mr. Udaiyappan, who directed the drop to drop by drop last weekend, for example, has been working here for 22 years.

Officials of work permit also need government approval to marry Singaporeans – another problem that activists have highlighted for years.

“The legislative change was slow because there was an insufficient political will to implement a hard -hitting change,” said Anil Kumar.

Earlier this week, the authorities presented the seven workers involved in the rescue of the chasms with commemorative documents, a Minister of State describing their actions as “a very good example of the way in which migrant workers help the company in general”.

But many criticized this decision as a tokenism.

“No quantity of thanking ” for their heroism should excuse the operating economic model that oppresses them every day to support the life we live in Singapore,” Kumarr said.

Many have echoed these reflections on the social, saying that men deserved more recognition. Some have called to get monetary awards and even a permanent residence.

Singapore’s ministry of labor said in a statement to the BBC that it was “encouraged to receive comments calling for more forms of appreciation” for migrant workers but has not addressed the specific suggestions raised.

“Their acts of daily care and bravery deserve to be recognized and celebrated in the context of whom we are as a community,” said the ministry spokesman in response to questions.

The migrant rights group, its rainy raincoats, collected $ 72,000 ($ 55,840; £ 41,790) of its own fundraising, which will also be divided between the seven men.

“So many times, we have seen how these migrant workers risk their own lives to save many citizens, including children, dangerous situations,” said Akm Mohin, who heads a business center for Bangladesh workers in the center of Singapore.

“They do the news and are considered excellent examples of humanitarian work, but their own humanity and their human rights are constantly violated in their workplaces, in the way they are transported and how they live,” said Mohin.

However, there has been increased awareness of the problems of migrant workers over the years.

Advocacy groups and the government have organized activities that bring together workers and the wider community.

Mr. Mohin, for example, manages a space for migrant workers to write, dance and play music – Singaporeans have helped to translate and publish their works, and often offer an audience for their performances.

But some activists say that most of them still see migrant workers as a class separate and lower than the local community.

Many live and work in industrial areas which are often further from the city’s residential regions.

In 2008, some 1,400 inhabitants of Serangoon Gardens, a district of the upper middle class, asked the construction of a dormitory of a migrant worker near their home.

To appease them, the authorities have reduced the size of the dormitory and built a separate road so that workers access the dormitory.

“We essentially consider them as a different class of people. We expect to be served by them and believe that this is why they are here,” Alex told, vice-president of the defense group of transitional workers, workers.

“The servants are supposed to jump using their masters.”