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SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Human Resources (MOM) said it had not noticed an increase in the number of migrant staff suicides compared to previous years, it was aware of recent incidents involving staff living in dormitories.
“The Ministry of Labour is aware of the recent wave of suicides and suicide attempts involving migrants living in dormitories,” MOM said Wednesday (August 5) in response to NAC questions.
“While we have not noticed an increase in the number of suicides of migrant employees compared to previous years, we are following the stage and working intensively with our partners and NGOs for our intellectual aptitude assistance systems for employees.”
More than 300,000 migrants living in dormitories were excluded in April as a component of the government’s strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In recent weeks, questions have been asked about the prestige of intellectual fitness to follow ads for herbal deaths.
On July 24, a 37-year-old Indian employee was discovered dead at 512 Old Choa Chu Kang Road. According to the police, this is a case of “unnatural death” and investigations are ongoing.
In May, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi employee was discovered motionless in a bedroom that moved to a factory in Kranji.
A few weeks earlier, a 46-year-old Indian citizen died of his injuries after standing on a ladder at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
The videos have also circulated online, and some appear precariously on rooftops and top ledges.
One of the videos, posted around July 22, shows a status on a PPT Lodge 1B bedroom ledge in Seletar.
The worker, who remained on a COVID-19-free block, had bought a plane ticket to move home alone and became nervous when his employer “didn’t facilitate his return,” MOM said at a Facebook post.
A dispute arose because the employee did not talk to his employer about his goal of coming home, MOM said. He allowed him to leave Singapore the next day.
On August 2, another employee gave the impression of getting hurt in his sungei Kadut bedroom. Photos circulating online show a bloodied mendacity on a ladder.
Mom told THE NAC in the past that the guy was in solid condition.
“MOM audits revealed that the employee had no late payment delays and that his food and accommodation were provided. There is also no indication that he suffered before the incident,” the ministry said.
Despite recent incidents, MOM said its complex insurance and aid groups (public staff stationed in dormitories) have stepped up their efforts to “proactively seek out citizens who can gain benefits by talking to an intellectual fitness counselor.”
“We’ve also worked with IMH to exercise and equip ourselves on the front line with the wisdom and skills needed to help people who might want support,” he added.
MENTAL HEALTH HIT BY CONTAINMENT, UNCERTAINTY ABOUT JOBS: AID GROUPS
Uncertainties about his health, paintings and extended confinement affected the intellectual state of many migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the migrant painters’ defense teams said.
According to Justin Paul, director of the nonprofit’s intellectual aptitude program HealthServe, there have been more cases of people trying to hurt themselves or expressed a preference for doing so because of the stressful situation.
Your organization has noticed an accumulation in the number of staff in your intellectual fitness services.
In April, 71 staff members contacted them through their virtual counseling, advisory and online organization treatment sessions. It saw 244 employees in June and 207 in July. In total, HealthServe has earned requests from approximately 750 employees to date.
“Generally speaking, they are under pressure for uncertainties,” said Dr. Chan Lai Gwen, a psychiatrist founded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and a volunteer at HealthServe.
In listing his concerns, Dr. Chan said: “If they will contract COVID-19, if they can become infected again after they have become infected again and return to the bedroom, how long will their isolation (or) quarantine last, if they can return and see their families, if they will be physically compatible to repaint, if they still have a task to return to (and) if their paintings let in , will be renewed “.
The stage reached a breaking point just after the end of the circuit breaker, Paul said. The staff who had been locked up for two months thought they could nevertheless return to work, but that didn’t happen.
“When June 2 arrived and left, many staff members who were braking and had accumulated tension since April began to separate in other ways,” he said, adding that the HealthServe consulting team began to see an increase in the number of employees talking outside. suicidal thoughts.
For Chinese nationals, tension was aggravated by the news that other people were repainting in China. Family members at home began pressuring them to get money, he added.
In the case of suicide attempts, MOM stated that, based on their background and commitments to NGOs, these incidents stem from disorders faced by staff at home, such as marital or family disorders or unforeseen injuries in their home countries.
“Because of the existing COVID-19 scenario, migrant staff would likely face delays in returning home, causing misery as they are with their families,” MOM said Wednesday.
“MOM has facilitated the return of staff to their home country. But because there are a number of points at stake, such as making sure that those staff have recovered and approved a swab check as needed in some countries of origin, we are looking to make it transparent to employers and staff that it may take some time for staff to return. “
The rights teams NAC spoke to stated that another thing affecting migrant personnel in this era is their living environment.
Conflicts are inevitable when many staff members from other cultures and backgrounds stay in a room 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, said Samuel Stephen Gift, founder of the Guest Workers Alliance.
“Imagine if one guy prays and another plays background music … You know how vital his faith is. If they can’t practice it properly, it will actually be their intellectual state,” said Stephen, whose organization is approaching the South. Asian staff living in dormitories.
Hotel and cruise stays are then rescued. With strict measures restricting movement and windowless rooms, many felt disoriented, said Cai Yinzhou, co-founder of the COVID-19 Migrant Support Coalition.
The same is happening with staff at the network’s care facility, Added Paul, who cited an example of a giant men’s organization at the Singapore Expo piling up in a small hole where sunlight filtered near a makeshift bath.
“An employee asked if it was Thursday when it was Saturday,” said Mr. Cai, who had visited the employees. “Some of them cannot sleep. Or when they do, they have nightmares.”
Comments on social media that staff are going through on hotels and cruise ships have been humiliating, Cai said.
Recently, more staff have expressed their preference to return home to recover, said Dr. Chan, who has also noticed cases of staff minding self-harm.
“Everyone interested in migrants wants to be aware of the tension they face and the genuine threat of suicide and self-harm when the sense of depression intensifies,” Dr. Chan said. “Suicide can be prevented.”
HELP AVAILABLE
Workers must have resources for mental fitness, MOM said Wednesday.
“We have made extensive efforts to keep staff informed of COVID’s efforts, through daily messages and also woven into their language to advertise the intellectual aptitude and well-being of the staff. These documents inspire staff to identify symptoms of distress, control others, be a friend’s partner, and know where to seek help,” the ministry said.
He added that to lessen the effect of isolation, the time set for staff to leave their rooms and access non-unusual areas. The ministry said it had also worked with NGOs to organize activities such as training sessions.
“In the future, when network instances and dormitories remain low for some time, we hope that migrant staff can leave their dormitories to go to recreation centers in a measured manner,” MOM said.
NGOs have also tried to hire staff in other ways.
For example, Mr. Cai’s organization delivers products such as coffee, tea and razors from the automatic switch. More than a million of those pieces were distributed, he said.
Volunteers also carried out engagement systems to make friends and cut their hair.
“Some of their hair is very long and they’re very uncomfortable,” he said. “Just cutting them a little respite.”
Recently, a virtual city corridor organized about 60 employees where a doctor and migrant staff explained the scenario and existing policies and answered questions.
Mr. Stephen’s organization works with three hundred bedrooms of switched factories to deliver food and befriend food-picking staff.
Your organization is also in the process of establishing an online consulting service that connects and professional advisors in your home countries.
SOME EMPLOYERS ARE DOING THEIR PART
Employers have also tried to do their part.
Calsia Lee, director of interior design company Collective Designs, said she and her colleagues call their workers at least once a week and send them cakes from time to time. There is a WhatsApp discussion organization that you can tap at any time.
The company assured them that they will still have a task when they are allowed to leave, Lee said.
“The total corporation feels sorry for them, and feels it, in the face of their living conditions. They didn’t have the autonomy to walk, stretch or do hobbies at home, like the rest of us,” he said.
“We have their fears of contracting COVID-19, the uncertainty of their future, their estrangement from their families.”
Mr. Xu Xu Ping, Managing Director of the Chian Teck corporate structure, echoed those sentiments.
Since the beginning of the bedroom isolation, Mr. Xu and other members of the superior control team have begun to make activity plans for staff to cheer on.
“We treat each other as if we were the inside,” Xu said. “All those little efforts we’re looking to make seem to indicate that we care about them.”
Such activities include weekly games with small prizes to be won, sending Chinese herbs to “boost their immune systems” and even getting their company engineers to double up as English teachers over virtual classes.
Sometimes it sends video messages to your workers and encouraging notes.
“We want the morale of the workers,” Xu said.
In addition to short-term anxieties, Xu and his team seek to focus on the imaginable long-term effects of the tense intellectual health of workers.
“Some of them (the workers) call us and say, “Please let me go home, I don’t need to stay here anymore.”
“If the staff has a chance to come home, we expect 30% to leave without hesitation,” he said.
“I think this era of blocking is like an injury to the staff,” he added. “It will heal temporarily and if the staff (is) with Singapore, we will have a great shortage of professional personnel when we restart construction.”
One employee who is making plans to return to China is Mr. Siang Chonglin (not his genuine name).
The 51-year-old structure employee, the sole breadwinner, cannot return to work. For approximately 3 months, it has been at Seletar East Camp, which is a component of transit accommodation provided for healthy migrant employees.
When the NAC met with Mr. Siang on July 25, the Chinese citizen’s hopes of returning to his bedroom were frustrated that some camp staff members tested positive for a series of swabs on July 20.
“It will be a lie to say that I am not disappointed now,” said Siang, who asked for his call to be replaced in the report, fearing that his plans would return to China.
“YOU MUST PLAY OUR GAME TO ENTER THE VIRUS”
Four months after the imposition of the blockade, only about 90% of those personnel recovered or were tested for COVID-19. Even in this case, they are only allowed to leave the bedrooms for pictures and will have to return without delay after that.
Although the staff fought the closure, many perceive the lack of such measures.
“I sense the lockdown. We can’t leave because otherwise we pose a threat to the security of the rest of Singapore,” said Hasan Najmul, who has been confined to his room in a Choa Chu Kang bedroom since April.
The only time he felt depressed when he was quarantined in July, said the 24-year-old Bangladeshi. I was afraid I’d contracted COVID-19.
“My bosses called me, they told me “don’t worry,” said Hasan, who has been in Singapore for six years.” They’re very good. Send us food, heathens.
Paul stated that although he had realized the anguish, others had told him that they felt well supported by employers. Some have written to the government expressing their gratitude for the attention they have received.
“The government is doing everything it can to give us what we need. They spend cash on us,” said Fan Bing, a 48-year-old Chinese citizen who has been in Singapore for 17 years. “I’m satisfied.”
Mr. Bing spent his time in movies, the social media app Douyin, the news and chatting with his roommates.
“We can’t wait to start painting. But I wouldn’t have dared to move on to the paintings if the virus was still there.
“There is no other option. We just have to play our part in the fight against the virus … and have an open mind about the situation,” he said. “I hope it’s over soon, too.”
Where to get help: Several charities for migrant staff work with helplines, adding HealthServe (65 3138 4443), Migrant Workers Centre (65 6536 2692), Humanitarian Organization for the Economy of Migration (6341 5535) and Array of Transitional Workers (6297 7564) Array Samaritans of Singapore has a 24-hour hotline in 1800 221 4444, or you can send an email to [email protected]. If someone you know is at immediate risk, call an emergency doctor 24 hours a day.
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