Friday, October 07, 2011

Debts and dreams: Singapore's migrant workers...

It is early evening at the Isthana restaurant in Singapore's Little India and migrant workers are streaming in. Some pay for their curries and packets of rice, while others come for a free food program run by an NGO called The Cuff Road Project. Many of these men -- mainly from Bangladesh and India -- have no work and little or no money. But they have no shortage of sad stories to tell.

Back in his hometown in southeast Bangladesh, Amran longed to work in Singapore. So the 23-year old with a ready smile borrowed money wherever he could - some from relatives and some from a neighbor who charged interest. He scraped together the US$7,000 demanded by an agent in Bangladesh to secure a construction job and work permit.

Only nine months into his job in concrete assembly, Amran fell and broke his leg so badly that bones protruded through his skin. Though his doctor urged his employer to keep him in the hospital, Amran says he was sent back to the worker's dormitory after a week with a metal plate and 60 screws inserted into his leg.

Back in the dormitory Amran was left to fend for himself with a supply of pills and his food supplied by friends. He's healed now but left with a limp and a large debt. Full story...

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