44 foreign workers have been found crammed in a 4-bedroom apartment unit in Geylang.
Fearing punishment from their employers, the foreign workers didn’t dare to report their poor living conditions.
The apartment was partitioned into 7 rooms, with about 8 to 10 people living in each room besides the cockroaches and other pests that were found in the unit.
Said the Migrant Workers’ Centre, which inspected the unit with the Manpower Ministry after a helpline call:
“We were abhorred to see the tell-tale signs of roach and bed-bug infestation everywhere, which showed a lack of attention to hygiene and cleaning of the sleeping and storage areas, including inside the unit’s single refrigerator.”
The 44 foreign workers shared 2 toilets and occupants and 1 kitchen.
They would have to wake up very early in the morning and queue to use the toilets, and cook in their own little partitioned rooms.
The workers also had no proper laundry facilities, and said that they used the frames of their bunk-beds and any other available space nearby to hang-dry their wet clothes.
The Migrant Workers’ Centre said that the overcrowding, partitioning and obvious over-use of on-site amenities like electrical, water and gas points created “serious health and safety issues to the occupants of the unit”.
It has urged foreign workers to make a report if they find themselves trapped in such squalid living conditions.
