Some 300,000 migrant workers, many from South Asia, live in dormitories in the wealthy city-state, where they are crammed into shared rooms and sleeping in bunk beds.
Large complexes were hit by COVID-19 and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, highlighting what human rights activists have called poor living conditions for low-paid workers.
For most Singaporeans, strict movement restrictions were in place only for a short time, but migrant staff remained largely confined to their bedrooms, to go painting or go shopping.
The government has eased restrictions, allowing them to stop at specially built “recreation centers,” and has established a program that allows them to apply for special “exit passes” to make stops in express areas.
Starting Friday, — hired in industries like structure and maintenance — they will no longer want passes to get out of their bedrooms.
However, Singapore’s strictly controlled government still requires them to apply for a constant permit to stop at four popular locations on Sundays and public holidays, with up to 80,000 passes available per day.
The measure aims to manage the “high turnout” in those areas, a spokesman for the Labor Ministry told AFP.
“Even if we release visits to the network, we still have to be vigilant because the pandemic is over. “
Desiree Leong of the Humanitarian Organization for the Economics of Migration, an organization that supports migrant workers, welcomed the end of the exit pass requirement, but called the remaining restrictions “discriminatory. “
“For the rest of us, we no longer have movement restrictions,” he said. “It’s hard to see why those restrictions remain in place for migrant workers. “