In Singapore’s Little India quarter, South Asian workers get to experience the sights, sounds and smells of home – but is it really home? Photo: The Star/Santha Oorjitham
Singapore’s Little India has seen many changes since the riot in December 2013, which left over 60 people injured and 23 emergency vehicles damaged or burnt.
In July, new bus pick-up points opened for use on Race Course Road. The rampage by about 400 South Asian workers had been sparked when a private bus ran over and killed an Indian worker who was running alongside it.
“It is safer,” said Satish Kumar, a worker from India, of the new bus pick-up system. But, he added, the stronger police presence in Little India now discourages many foreign workers from spending their days off there.
“There are now many police over here,” said the 29-year-old, who had worked as a driver until he was injured recently. “When it is a Sunday, every street, everywhere there are police. They do not allow you to cross the road on your own. They give instructions on crossing the road.”
And if workers sit or stand around in groups, he added, “The police go over there and ask, ‘Why are you all together? What are you doing?’”
Migrant workers congregating at stalls along Kerbau Road, in Little India, Singapore, three weeks after a violent riot broke out in early December 2013. The apparent cause of the riot, the first such incident in 40 years, was the death of a migrant worker who was run down by a bus as he was chasing to get on it. Photo: SPH/Seah Kwang Peng
After the first riot in over 40 years, the city-state set up a Committee of Inquiry (COI) that came up in June 2014 with recommendations to strengthen the civil defence force and police force, manage the areas where foreign workers congregate and improve their lives.
The Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC), jointly set up by the National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation, was one of the first organisations to publicly call for calm after the riot. “We urged locals not to let the misguided actions of a very small minority cloud the generally positive sentiment towards migrant workers and their contributions to Singapore,” added its executive director Bernard Menon.
MWC also stressed that, based on its own case experience and surveys, the riot was not a sign of “systemic unhappiness or dissatisfaction” among the foreign workers. It has strengthened its emphasis on outreach and awareness among the workers and among Singaporeans on mutual reliance and the need for harmonious coexistence between both groups.
“In the last two years especially, people are getting more concerned about the conditions and treatment of migrant workers and are prepared to speak out when they see or hear injustice,” said Menon. More have donated towards their care and volunteered at the MWC’s two physical help centres and mobile help centre.
As of Dec 2014, there were 991,300 work permit holders in Singapore, including 322,700 construction workers. The work permits, valid for up to two years, are renewable but the men are not allowed to bring their wives and children.
Police officers examining a pedestrian bus destroyed during the Little India riot. A mob of about 400 people turned violent and attacked emergency vehicles responding to a fatal accident when a private bus ran over a migrant worker at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road on Dec 8, 2013. At least four police patrol cars were overturned by the mob, and an ambulance and two patrol cars were also set on fire. The riot left the street strewn with debris, including uprooted plants and broken glass. Photo: SPH /Alpjhonsus Chern
Members of Singapore HinlmPF’s Special Operation Command stand in front of a burning ambulance during the riot in Little India along Race Course Road on Dec 8 , 2013. Photo: SPH/Mark Cheong
Police patrol cars turned on their sides after the riot in Little India on Dec 8, 2013. The damage was caused by a 400-strong mob who turned violent following the death of a migrant worker who was hit by a bus. Photo: SPH/Desmond Wee
Hotspot
For South Asian workers, Little India has been the place to gather on Sundays and shop, eat, socialise and run errands, as the COI report pointed out. Witnesses told the Committee that up to 100,000 visited the district each Sunday.
After the riot, alcohol consumption in public areas of Little India was banned on weekends, public holidays and the eve of public holidays. Liquor and convenience stores in the area were allowed to sell alcohol between 6am and 8pm on those days, while licensed restaurants, hotels, pubs and coffee shops were allowed to sell alcohol at all times as long as it was drunk on the premises.
The COI recommended alcohol restrictions “in hotspots where large crowds typically indulge in heavy drinking, and therefore where a triggering incident could spark a breakdown of public order”.
In April this year, new liquor laws were introduced and in the two liquor control zones of Geylang and Little India, public drinking has been banned from 7am on Saturdays to 7am on Mondays, and from 7pm onwards on the eve of public holidays to 7am on the day after the holiday.
“They put signboards everywhere that we are not allowed to drink outside,” said Satish. “If anybody does, they just catch the people and charge them.”
The COI also recommended offering more services and facilities for foreign workers outside the congregation areas, to reduce congestion. In January this year, Singapore passed the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act which requires larger dormitories, with 1,000 or more beds, to have amenities like ATMs, mini-marts and sick bays. About 200,000 foreign workers live in these big dormitories.
At a migrant workers’ dormitory in Singapore, there are strict controls in place. Photo: Santha Oorjitham
Hothouse
Westlite Dormitory Pte Ltd houses 28,000 workers in Singapore. One of its newer dormitories in Jurong East, near the shipyards, has free WiFi, a gym, reading room, three entertainment areas, a clinic and a mini-market stocked with products from the workers’ home countries.
Here, 8,600 workers stay in 700 units. Each unit sleeps up to 12 and has its own toilets and kitchen, with employers paying the rent.
Every month, said Bakurdeen Abdul Majid, group dormitory manager for Singapore, Westlite organises sports and outings for the workers – to Universal Studios, Gardens by the Bay, Jurong Bird Park, the Singapore airshow and even as far north as Genting Highlands – as well as a big variety show once a year. Non-governmental organisations offer counselling, pastoral care and English conversation and computer literacy classes.
Entry is strictly monitored with radio frequency identification passes as well as biometric scanning. And house rules – no alcohol or contraband cigarettes, no guests, no assaults – are enforced with warnings, fines and ultimately eviction when the rules are broken.
“It’s a challenge to get them to live harmoniously together,” said Bakurdeen, but most of the workers comply with the house rules. “They know they will be repatriated if there are problems.”
There are more facilities at the workers’ dormitories now, said Christine Pelly, an executive committee member with Transient Workers Count Too: “They can hang out there. But you can’t stop them from going out.”
They still want to meet their relatives and friends who work in other parts of Singapore, and pick up medication which has been sent from home. “In Little India, they experience the sights, sounds and smells of home.”
Some of them feel there are more checks and police presence there now, she added, which can be intimidating.
“The workers mostly don’t like to come to Little India on Sundays because they are worried and the police are checking every time,” explained Satish. “They feel uncomfortable.”
On their day off, he said, most now stay at their worksite or dormitory and sleep.
Four men silhouetted against a mural of buffaloes in the Little India district of Singapore in Aug 2015. Photo: EPA/Wallace Woon
