How sinkholes on migrant workers' rights have been revived in Singapore

A group of workers from a nearby construction site fell into action when a deep 3m (10ft) sinkhole swallowed a black Mazda on a busy Singapore road on Saturday.

Grabbing the rope from their workplace, they threw it into a sinkhole by a female driver.

Within five minutes they were able to draw her safely.

“I was scared, but all the feelings (sic) were that this woman had to be rescued first,” Foreman Sapua Pic Udaiyapan from the construction site later told reporters.

Footage of the incident quickly spread through word of mouth on social media, with many celebrating the workers as heroes.

Udaiyapan is a “million workers,” a term used in Singapore to describe the 1.17 million workers from underclass countries such as Bangladesh, India and Myanmar to wealthy city-states.

Most of them do low wages and labor-intensive jobs that Singaporeans avoid.

This is not the first time migrant workers have served as first responders to save lives in Singapore. In April, the four helped rescue children trapped in shophouses after the fire broke out.

Their recent actions have revived debates about the rights, or lack of, of low-wage workers in Singapore.

Singapore's fast-growing economy is built behind these workers, which make up nearly three-quarters of the country's foreign workers. Many of them work in sectors such as construction, marine shipyards, and manufacturing.

Although there is no minimum wage in Singapore, workers earn just $300 ($233) a month, according to advocacy groups, and live in crowded dorms, often away from residential areas.

However, they are often subject to abuse by recruitment agencies and their employers, including labor, unpaid labor and poor living conditions. These issues are well documented, but activists say they have little changed over the years.

“Today, you celebrate them. Tomorrow, you'll go back to generalizing them as cheats, liars, and dirty,” social worker Suraendher Kumarr wrote on Instagram in response to the sinkhole incident.

After workers' dormitories emerged as a hotbed for the virus during the 2020 symbiotic pandemic, their living conditions were exposed, with hundreds of workers tested positive every day.

It sparked public debate about their terms – supporters had been warning for decades – and authorities later took action to improve dormitory standards.

Another persistent issue that the sinkhole incident has again been spotlighted is the use of flatbed trucks to ferry these workers.

“It's scathingly poetic about the fact that the migrant worker who was likely taken to the back of the truck is out of the way to save Singaporeans with her car,” said Kumarr, a member of the rights group's workers.

Singapore's law prohibits people from traveling on freight decks of such trucks, except in medical emergency situations. However, if you are employed by the truck owner, you are permitted.

Sometimes, as many as 12 workers are crammed into the back of flatbed trucks without seat belts. This is an economical option for many employers who use trucks to transport goods.

However, this has led to multiple accidents, some of which involve death.

In April 2021, two foreign workers died and more than a dozen were injured after the truck crashed into a stationary flatbed truck.

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

Activists have worked long to ban this mode of transport – this issue has been discussed many times in Congress, but little has changed.

While the Singapore government has encouraged businesses to transport workers by bus, it has repeatedly stated that banning such trucks entirely is not viable for small businesses.

“Many of them were closed and allowed to allow both local and foreign workers to lose their jobs,” the Secretary of State told Congress in February.

“It also leads to delays in important projects such as (public housing), schools, hospitals, (trains), and costs more for Singaporeans.”

Activists have criticized authorities for reducing workers' rights to mere economic considerations, noting that other countries that rely heavily on migrant workers, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, forbidden from transporting people by truck.

Collections collected from foreign workers can be used to subsidize other modes of transport without giving away costs to businesses and consumers, Kumarr suggested.

Government rhetoric preserves disproportionate power in the hands of employers above the lives and livelihoods of migrant workers,” said Jaya Anil Kumar, a senior researcher at the Humanitarian Organization of Immigration Economics, as another advocate for immigration rights.

The Lorry Rides ban is just one of the list of changes that supporters are hoping to do. This includes living wages, stronger whistleblower protection and subsidized health care.

Despite dedicating decades of life to Singapore, these workers also have no way of putting their roots due to the kind of work permit that is different from that of foreign experts and executives.

No matter how long they have worked in the country, they are unable to qualify for permanent residence. For example, Udaiyappan, who oversaw the sinkhole rescue operation last weekend, has been working here for 22 years.

Work permit holders also need government approval to marry Singaporeans. Another issue activist has emphasized over the years.

“The change in legislation is slowing due to insufficient political will to enact an influential change,” Anil Kumar said.

Earlier this week, authorities presented seven workers involved in the sinkhole rescue in commemoration coins, with the state minister describing their actions as “a very good example of how migrant workers generally help society.”

However, many people criticize this move as tokenism.

“To be “thank” them for their heroism, we should not excuse the exploitative economic model that suppresses them every day to maintain the lives we live in Singapore,” Kumarr said.

Many people reflected these ideas about society, saying that men deserve more recognition. Some people sought them to be given financial rewards and even permanent residency.

In a statement to the BBC, Singapore's Manpower Ministry said migrant workers are “encouraged to receive feedback asking for more appreciation,” but did not address the specific proposals raised.

“Their daily acts of care and courage deserve to be recognized and praised as part of who we are as a community,” a spokesman for the ministry said in response to a question.

The Immigration Rights Group Rain Rain Court raised S$72,000 ($55,840, £41,790) from a seven-person fundraiser.

“We have seen many times that these migrant workers risk their lives to save many citizens, including children, from dangerous situations,” said AKM Mohsin, who runs the Activities Centre for Workers in Bangladeshi, central Singapore.

“They make news and are put as good examples of humanitarian work, but their own humanity and human rights are constantly violated about the workplace, how they are transported and how they live,” Mohsin said.

However, there has been a growing awareness of the issue of migrant workers over the years.

Advocacy groups and government organized activities that connected workers with the broader community.

Mohsin, for example, runs a space for migrant workers to write, dance and perform music. Singaporeans help translate and publish their works, and often provide an audience for their performances.

However, some activists say that most activists across the country view migrant workers as a different class from the community.

Many live and work in industrial areas, often far from the city's residential areas.

In 2008, about 1,400 residents of Serangoon Gardens, a middle-class neighbourhood, petitioned to build a dormitory for migrant workers near their homes.

To do that, authorities reduced the size of the dorms and built another road for workers to access the dorms.

“We basically see them as a different class of people. We expect them to be served and that's why they're here,” said Alex O, vice president of temporary workers at the advocacy group.

“The servants are to leap to help their masters.”