Maid in Singapore | 101 East

[Music] they're young poor and alone in a foreign country girls as young as 15 are being sent from villages in Myanmar to the high-rises of Singapore to work illegally as domestic helpers I'm Steve chap on this episode 101 East meets the underage girls who say they were abused inside Singaporean homes she's a child in a strange country desperate to find her way home the social workers taking care of her have asked that we hide her identity so were calling her Ted Ted a month ago Ted Ted left Myanmar and boarded a plane bound for Singapore an agent had promised her a job as a domestic worker galino she clean out in geomap in law - Evo lock I love your female a Lua and then yeah sudden I lucked out Thank You Nicole Luba but it was illegal to hire tech debt under Singaporean law all foreign domestic workers must be at least 23 years old Ted Ted is just 15 the media aunty day the missing unusual dear Tammy took on only me la vida loca dude do me one on us at only babe you're amazing fury to keep up the charade her Myanmar agent got her a passport with a fake birth date February the 5th 1992 Ted Ted says she was born in the year 2000 it sounds like an implausible plan surely someone would uncover the truth but even doctors conducting her medical check-up in Singapore didn't seem to notice how young she was I ask only Obama viago no UNCG I said why through town she didn't go through Darwin xiao lu lu lu otro cci she said I cannot look at i'ma bombing me quick or upon me she had become a child worker in one of Asia's richest cities Tet Tet's disturbing story might never have surfaced had she not run away after realizing she couldn't cope with the job but what's truly shocking is that her story is not unique last year we saw at least 10 Burmese domestic workers who were underage and just this month alone we encountered six according to official statistics there are more than 230,000 foreign domestic workers in Singapore traditionally they come from the Philippines and Indonesia but NGO say they've been seeing more and more women from Myanmar in recent years agencies are bringing them in larger numbers because you can pay Burmese domestic workers less so it's not cost the rise in the number of workers comes despite a supposed clampdown in September 2014 the Myanmar government banned its citizens from seeking domestic work overseas following several reports of abuse but that has done little to stem the tide the agency find ways to bribe the authorities are so that their workers can in if mi even do there sir there's a ban next station orchard girls are still leaving Myanmar only now they are doing so illegally making them vulnerable to exploitation newest are gay say was just 17 when she came to Singapore the media level Ivana Oh Tommy eternal alleluia alleluia along your name video at that to be a lobby may lugar as well am I can be no denying gay say hoped to earn enough money to support her family and send her younger siblings to school but three months after starting work in Singapore she called a government helpline she said her employer was abusing her meeow meeow ID I don't know da-da-da-da-da Lainie McCallum Jovana and number kunio-kun a proud alumna teeny teeny petty [ __ ] out to Holly totally dominating me to [ __ ] on a lickin case a is now 19 this shelter has been no home for nearly a year the mean with you add immediate Anatomy I'm her gonna plenty but the shelter will have to do for now she has to stay here as long as police investigations are still underway five months after meeting que se we finally see her smile I am pure any Mary have been he's going home at last a case has finally been resolved a court recently sentenced her employer to six weeks in prison for assaulting her donnatella the media case a mechanically they drove to a Toyota que se Makka Moo well the mute Amidala the message a man near looted popular throughout the medical a sale is on Yaris hello Jamar at home a yard we are all human I am alone at a table me I am a lieutenant this is where case they used to live and where she was so badly treated towner estate one of many public housing estates in Singapore life for her inside one of these flats was isolating and bewildering she says she was only allowed outside when she walked her employers children to and from the local school I'm you know the me opponent only a clearly Joe Kinnear pour lui RA you're a young Liam Portello up off your dinner to a piano she 18 semana it's in Germany you're double kinda cool my download relative a mother yet tell me while case a plans her journey home back at the shelter another young woman from Myanmar is left living in limbo Momo was also just 17 when she arrived in Singapore she's been at the shelter for more than two years after running away from an employer she says sexually abused her she's agreed to speak to us if we hide her identity boohockey heroin oh da da lol KEK Aida and majeeda world implement honest with you go to me to me alone rosewood hello takeba lot to co double envelope Ian maloso led to identify a de Bono we're all diversity able to meet work everyday people who not glad the lan-evo Macola unit he was out here money Altamira am i usually Tamiya and I'm a blue blob game Lucia day at the mill said to me off iater momo says she finally ran away after her employer raped her risking her life by climbing out of the window of his 7th floor apartment we asked why she didn't leave earlier hello the table to up to top so to capital Padova me a promoter p.m. hakuna la maleta me le jour de bois de boulogne parolee de la pierre a mushi la piscina beeping atropine a DME Rocio Napa Sonoma and watch out we document a p.m. and she being in debt creates a dilemma that many of the women at the shelter No - well often the first six to ten months of their salaries go towards paying their agents for arranging their flight visa accommodation and employment it leads to situations of forced labour the women feel compelled to continue working for the employer because they haven't paid up their debt and the debt also compels them to work under very exploitative and abusive conditions because if they are unable to pay it off they are afraid that they might be harassed or their families might be harassed in the countries of origin the abuse that gay se suffered at the hands of her employer will be hard to forget but at least she's going home Myanmar is a three hour plane ride from Singapore Kasey's older sister spent the night at a bus station so that she could get to the airport in time they've not seen each other for more than a year it's monsoon season in Myanmar and it's a slow journey home three hours drive from Yangon in what looks like the middle of nowhere someone very special is waiting for them the road to their village is too muddy for cars to pass so Casey's father has come with a bullock cart to take his daughter's home here my mother they see my mother is my mother very cute right yeah I download the linear mama um you doesn't even contain tamil telugu preeti allah to say Mike Hanigan near honorable said Chikara Tita mimiama team life is hard here gates family are rice farmers who make around twelve hundred dollars a year so when an agent told her about a job that would pay her at least three hundred and fifty dollars a month she jumped at the opportunity she's now decided it's better to be a farmer but not everyone regrets their decision to leave the village gay says neighbor has also just returned from Singapore she says her employers treated her well no doctor apology I don't know so they're finding McConnell me dinner together funny gonna sing at the meeting I'm gonna hope on Amara she was lucky but she was also illegal when we asked to see her passport an identity guard the birth dates don't match them yeah then asserted never know who mom I lied I know so Tony I can't wanna sit on a team at Loyola and in general Kenobi I met them yet was he a blue one and it no jolly in a yeah net me who I left a corn at the meal apologies there are women who never make it home while we're in gay Said's village a terrible story breaks in Singapore a domestic worker from Myanmar is dead and her employers a mother and daughter charged with her murder P an nightdawn had been with the family for more than a year before her untimely death according to media reports P an was found with bruises on her body indicating that she had been abused we decide to pay P Ang's family a visit but they live in an area even more remote than gay Saints village to get there we must first return to Yangon then take a plane to the city of Calais in Northwest near Mothe next we get into a four-wheel drive and head into neighboring Qin state one of the poorest regions in the country it's a slow bumpy ride over 50 miles of rough mountainous terrain landslides are a regular occurrence here and the journey takes ten hours as we near the village we switch to motorbikes for the last part of the journey the road here is so bad even our four-wheel drive can't get through P an was a single mother and had left her son in her sister's care when she went to work in Singapore oh I'm sorry to Molly Molly lo Serena Lula my co totally behlul Oh Tamar look III Morello to my heart on the console now that she's gone P Aang's little boy will only know his mother through these photos the family says she rarely called home and never complained about her job they only suspected something was wrong when they spoke to her just two weeks before her death in late July Malusi male a Madame anima como ellos piensan ere the unhindered Jota Jota learning about happy and married him up was Uncle Pete Latin it was the last time they spoke outside the house P Angie blings have prepared a cross for her they want her to be buried next to their parents but something doesn't match it says here that she was born on the 13th of June 1992 official documents produced by P and sister confirmed that this is correct but it appears her agent had changed the birth date on her passport to two months earlier the 13th of April 1992 so when P arrived in Singapore she was actually under 23 the legal minimum age for domestic workers there had corrupt officials in Myanmar not provided her with false paperwork had Singaporean authorities discovered the truth she might still be alive today it's beautiful in Dimpy but the scenery can't mask the poverty that's evident everywhere in this village young women desperate for a better life are easy targets for unscrupulous agents a year ago power and Mun were told they too could get jobs in Singapore the teenagers speak only a Qin dialect and know very little of the world outside the village but a recruitment agent told them they had nothing to worry about my pulled a donkey some know some donkey some baloney that I said okay some blue and some sausages okay some low yo tech boom boom some turkey silo tea because something mala do you wanna go take a panel on Saab kassig inna low duty they were taken to a boardinghouse in Yangon there 16 year old pal had a change of heart after overhearing a telephone conversation between a roommate and her worried parents he totally loner broken denti-cal Umaga at wah at ice india she fled the boarding house in the early hours one morning with another girl from her village leaving man behind the streets of Yangon must have seemed up the wildering place but two teenagers from a far away village when a taxi driver offered them a free ride they got into his car but then she says he tried to molest them alone in our little call she's reluctant to say much more about the ordeal what we do know is that the girls managed to fend him off luckily the next stranger they met got them the help they needed equilibar leave me there I don't follow do I need little nothing I would sell Colt a culture an undertaker I go out that door down quick Canelo or not zamzar thorne lives in Yangon but he's originally from Dimpy the girls home village when he met them they told him their friend man was still at the boarding house in danger of being sent to Singapore he decided to launch a rescue mission don't you dare walk down kala our guru who taught Inari a llama the recruitment agents boarding house is on the seventh floor of this building okay okay okay Sam arrived accompanied by some police officers he demanded that man be released whoa whoa Camaro later Merapi met Calero imagine odd the chat today idly today are imma who through yet Ronaldo see my plra a family be like a whoa whoa Lisa Poonam buddy come here Pune bottle americano Punta Martineau Kotaro a Arbutin of young City fire oh hey it's in Milano hey Maya who a Milla it proved their connection to the runaway girls they could no longer deny involvement and keeping up the pressure zom was able to rescue the teen who had been left behind there are recruitment agents who say they are trying to clean up the industry at this training center in Yangon the policy is to only recruit women who are at least 23 years old the me by downloaded this analysis also qual Yankee really near kitaro kitaro de clearly ljubljana Annamma hoover Capricia army doesn't know queried Anne please say Medina video detainee McCann a novel while I was in Naruto now the coop appeared on our team Allah he ends up day is young leader our job you the mir ahmad digger and I thought Mary was once a domestic worker herself she says she had a hard time when she first got a Singapore Deacon why don't you they didn't Amador but I got nominated yet Nani D - he abides edited their binding mama Tina doctrine even or maybe a binding on gentlemen 3.2 year despite claiming that her trainees are of legal age her business isn't totally aboveboard and Mary still wants her identity hidden beyond the training she must also find ways for these women to get out of Myanmar she says immigration officials have to be bribed to turn a blind eye ladies I don't know routine in the media you are not paying any fees are you know BDO my ladies a di da la da la nieve en la me penny any other penny illuminate di da di da la da de Coubertin or seeing what Billy were me I'd be a poor nada who where my delight born with younger today we're sorry no corneal emulator mary says she won't exploit underaged girls but plenty of other recruitment agents have been doing just that and were about to meet one a source has given us her address and we've decided to pay her a visit our cover story is that were a Singaporean couple trying to track down their aunts former domestic worker this is the employment passport through the door row after row of young women can be seen sitting on the floor the agent asks one of them to look at our photo she seems awfully young no more than a teenager she's from Singapore he's not the only new recruit we learned that everyone sitting here has only recently arrived many of them look like they're still in their teens do you also say and then she helpfully tells us the name of a Singaporean partner there is a limited work back in Singapore and we found slf agency Wow this time we posed as potential employers looking to hire a domestic worker from Myanmar we're introduced to this young woman how old are you her answer should have raised alarm bells but the agents don't seem perturbed instead they try hard to close the deal before we live the laws of both Myanmar and Singapore were written to protect girls like this one from exploitation but no one not even the governments who wrote the rules seems to be taking any notice of them when we wrote to Singapore's Ministry of Manpower they sent us a single paragraph citing a survey showing that 97 percent of foreign domestic workers were satisfied working in Singapore our queries about government policies corruption in Myanmar and the abuse of women and even girls were all ignored the Myanmar government didn't even respond to our request for comment it's an issue which both source and destination countries have to have the political will to do something about it's not a problem that lies only with the Burmese government or the Singapore government so there has to be a lot more bilateral cooperation to ensure that this kind of exploitation by the crewmen agents don't happen for young women with few options in their home country employment as domestic workers in Singapore can be a way out of poverty but unless flaws in the system are fixed there's always the risk that their dreams of a better life could turn into a nightmare [Music]

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 1,066,348

Rating: 4.7043338 out of 5

Keywords: Asia-Pacific, human rights, domestic workers, Al Jazeera English, singapore, labour, al Jazeera, myanmar, jazeera, 101 East, asia, Current affairs, maids, migrant workers, women's rights, children's rights, maid, corruption, sexual predators, aljazeera, aljazeera english, Maid in Singapore

Id: xQbd2XZGyXg

Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 29 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/vocalfreesia]

My average small town in the UK was uncovered as having a fairly significant slave ring. The slavers targeted young men with learning disabilities outside the job centre. It's absolutely astounding how common slavery is.

[u/guimixer]

This is the other side. Like there always is.

[u/CockGoblinReturns]

I saw something similar in the las vegas mansion party scene. Families encouraging their teenage daughters go to into prostitution because of huge payouts.

I tried to tell the police, but they said they need more evidence to follow up.

[u/yunoeconbro]

This happens a lot with SE Asian women. Especially, Philippines. Agent recruits poor, naive, uneducated underage girls to go overseas as domestic workers. The girls don't know shit. They get them over to China and the Middle East on tourism visas, and take their passport. God help you if you go to Saudi. Now they are overseas illegally (after the tourist visa fires, also cant work on a tourist visa) and can't even leave cuz no passport. Exploited in every way possible. Plus any income they make is sen to the agency for "fees". It is modern day slavery.

Source: my wife, her friends, and more people than I wish have been in this.

People in these agencies need to be jailed.

[u/justdrowsin]

It’s an absolute crime and a travesty that underage girls are forced into slavery like this.

If Singapore had any shred of dignity they would respect their laws and wait until the girls are 23 before they force them into slavery.

/s....

[u/KerikSumia]

SENT! Who the hell is sending them?

[u/TimesX]

Being in a third world country, I'm not surprised this is happening.

Many dream of the prestige of "working abroad" but life outside isn't as sparkly as others make it out to be.

[u/295DVRKSS]

Imagine the shit that goes on in the middle east

[u/rollin340]

The way maids are treated here is generally, from what I can tell, pretty bad; at least from personal experience. Some are great, and the maids feel like part of the family. But even in those scenarios, I may dislike how they are treated.

It's this mentality that people have that maids are literally beneath them; as in less than they are in terms of being a person.
It goes beyond an employer/employee status, and it frankly disgusts me.

And we do hear the occasional story of abuse, and they can be pretty fucked up. And they are definitely underrepresented.

It's sad how modern day slavery is still a thing. And maids, who get shit pay, and are expected to work in a live in manner 24/7, and don't get great, or sometimes any benefits, should be considered as one, or at least close to one.

Not to say all maids are mistreated or in bad spots. But we know some are. And something should really be done about it.