Singapore HUMAN Maid to Order RIGHTS Ending Abuses against Migrant Domestic Workers WATCH in Singapore December 2005 Volume 17, No. 10 (C) Maid to Order Ending Abuses Against Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore Summary......................................................................................................................................... 1 Key Recommendations............................................................................................................6 Background .................................................................................................................................... 9 Asian Women’s Labor Migration ........................................................................................... 9 Status of Women in Sending Countries ..............................................................................12 Status of Women in Singapore .............................................................................................14 Migrants in Singapore.............................................................................................................15 Pre-Departure Abuses................................................................................................................18 Legal Framework for Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore .........................................24 Exclusion from Labor Laws..................................................................................................25 Work Permit Regulations.......................................................................................................27 Recent Initiatives.....................................................................................................................29 Unjustifiable Disparate Impact: Exclusion from Labor Protections..............................32 Agent Abuse and Negligence in Singapore.............................................................................34 Workplace Abuses in Singapore ...............................................................................................38 Deaths.......................................................................................................................................38 Forced Confinement, Unpaid Wages, and Exorbitant Debt Payments .........................42 Forced Confinement and Restricted Communication..................................................42 Unpaid Wages .....................................................................................................................48 Exorbitant Debt Payments................................................................................................52 International Standards on Forced Labor and Debt Bondage....................................57 International Standards on Freedom of Movement and Freedom of Association ..60 Poor Working Conditions .....................................................................................................61 Lack of Rest Days...............................................................................................................62 Hours of Work, Rest Periods ...........................................................................................66 Illegal Deployment .............................................................................................................68 Low and Unequal Wages...................................................................................................70 Inadequate Living Accommodations...............................................................................72 The Right to Just and Favorable Conditions of Work..................................................73 Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Mistreatment..............................................................75 Physical Abuse ....................................................................................................................75 Food Deprivation...............................................................................................................78 Sexual Abuse and Harassment..........................................................................................82 Verbal Abuse and Threats.................................................................................................84 The Right to Security of Person and Freedom from Discrimination.........................86 Restrictions on Religious Freedom ......................................................................................87 Restrictions on Reproductive and Marriage Rights...........................................................89 Government and Private Responses to Abuse.......................................................................94 Response of the Singapore Government ............................................................................94 Response of Sending Countries..........................................................................................102 Response of Employment Agencies..................................................................................105 Response of Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations.............................................106 Response of Regional and International Institutions......................................................107 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................108 Recommendations.....................................................................................................................109 To the Singapore Government...........................................................................................109 To the Governments of Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Other Labor- Sending Countries.................................................................................................................111 To Employment Agencies and Accrediting Bodies.........................................................112 To International Donors and Organizations....................................................................112 To the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)............................................113 Acknowledgments.....................................................................................................................113 Appendix A: Standard Contract for Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong ..........115 Appendix B: Work Permit Conditions for Domestic Workers in Singapore ..................120 Appendix C: Abuses Documented by Human Rights Watch...........................................122 Appendix D: Prosecution Cases for Salary Default............................................................124 Summary I was not allowed to go outside. I never went outside, not even to dump the garbage. I was always inside, I didn’t even go to the market. I felt like I was in jail. It was truly imprisonment. I was not allowed to turn the radio on either…. I could only see the outside world when I hung clothes to dry. — Sri Mulyani (not her real name), Indonesian domestic worker, age thirty, Singapore, February 19, 2005 I was afraid if I ran away, I would be caught by the police. Madam often got angry with me, complained to the agency, and the agency also got angry with me. The agent asked, “What do you want?” I said, “I want to die, ma’am, because the people here are cruel, everything I do is wrong, I’m always called idiot and stupid.” [It got so bad,] I really didn’t know what to do, so I drank poison for rats and cockroaches. I lost consciousness, and Madam brought me to the hospital…. The police told me it was wrong to try suicide. When the incident happened, I had been working exactly seven months. I had earned S$90 [U.S.$53]. —Muriyani Suharti (not her real name), domestic worker, age twenty- two, Singapore, March 8, 2005 Between 1999 and 2005, at least 147 migrant domestic workers died from workplace accidents or suicide, most by jumping or falling from residential buildings. There is no single reason why domestic workers resort to suicide, but research by Human Rights Watch suggests that many women are made despondent by poor working conditions, anxiety about debts owed to employment agencies, social isolation, and prolonged confinement indoors, sometimes for weeks at a time. As authorities have acknowledged, many of the deaths are also due to workplace accidents. Several of the workers fell to their deaths after their employers forced them to balance precariously, despite being many stories up, to clean windows from the outside or to hang clothes to dry on bamboo poles suspended from window sills. While the deaths of migrant workers described above have received increasing attention in the media and from policymakers, the context in which they occur too often is overlooked. This report, which draws on extensive research and more than one hundred interviews, surveys the abusive conditions facing many domestic workers in Singapore today. 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 10(C) Many migrant domestic workers in Singapore face abysmally long working hours, no weekly rest days, and low wages, areas neglected by Singapore’s laws and addressed primarily through non-binding information guides. In many cases, migrant domestic workers in Singapore work thirteen to nineteen hours a day, seven days a week, and are restricted from leaving the workplace. They typically earn less than half the pay that workers earn in similar occupations in Singapore—such as