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SINGAPORE: Ms. Simpen, 49, who is passing through and worked as a domestic servant in Singapore for thirteen years, was among the members of the Indonesian network here who were hailed from news of the acquittal of her compatriot, the Liyani Party. “He hasn’t done anything, so it’s smart he won’t go to jail, ” said Simpen.
Ms. Parti, 46, had been convicted in the past through a district ruling for stealing pieces worth S$34,000 from her employer, former Changi Airport Group president Liew Mun Leong, and her family. She was sentenced to two years and two months, in prison.
But on appeal, his conviction and sentencing on four counts of robbery were overturned through the High Court on September 4, and Judge Chan Seng Onn ruled that the district court had ignored a number of issues and that Mr Liew and his son had an “inappropriate motive” in accusing Ms. Party of robbery in 2016.
On 8 September, Ms Parti’s case was officially closed when she won a discharge that amounted to the acquittal of her last pending position.
In reaction to the news, another Indonesian domestic assistant, Ms. Dewi Cahyani, 33, said she was not only satisfied by Ms. Parti, but also proud that an Indonesian companion had defended he he heeded. Dewi added that he doubted that he could do the same if he were in Ms. Parti’s shoes.
Although they come from another country, several Filipino domestic employees in Singapore spoke to Ms. Parti for her bravery.
“The greeting,” said Ms. Grecilda Capopez, 47, who has worked here for 21 years. “It’s a very brave fight on its own. I think some maids in their position will just give up.
In addition to being an inspiration, Parti’s long adventure of transparentating his call also resoned on the foreign staff interviewed because they feared being charged with a crime they committed.
Earlier this week, The Minister of Internal Affairs and Law, K Shanmugam, said government agencies were looking for what was “wrong” in the chain of occasions that led the party to be convicted of theft.
Shanmugam added: “We want to find out what happened, why it happened and then take care of it. And be responsible. This is the way to build trust . . . in the system. Pass out in public and say what steps we took after completing the exams».
Mr Bilal Khan, 28, who is site supervisor, said he was very unhappy that a migrant employee had to go through such a test.
“(Migrant workers) also have their own families. If something happens here, he or she suffers and the circle of relatives also suffers,” he said.
Indeed, Mrs Parti’s conviction and upcoming acquittal also highlighted the demanding situations that migrant staff here may face in justice when in difficulty.
Audits of lawyers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have revealed the same thorny problems: migrant staff face difficulties in obtaining legal representation and combating language barriers when navigating the legal system. To make matters worse, they face a loss of source of income. and more anxiety, while waiting for your case to end, which can take years.
Sometimes these staff also do not know who to turn to for help, or what they face, such as Mr. Anil Balchandani, Ms. Parti’s defense attorney, in a recent interview with the migrant rights organization Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (DOMICILE). The NGO had supported Ms. Parti during her four-year trial.
When asked if they knew where to go for assistance if they were charged with a crime, the maximum number of foreign staff interviewed said they would seek help at their respective foreign embassies because that’s what they were told to do before they reached the paintings in Singapore.
Otherwise, they said they would seek the local government, either the police or the Ministry of Labour, if they were charged with a crime. Apart from these, Maximum said they didn’t know other channels they could search for.
ACCESS TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION
As of December last year, Singapore had about 261,800 foreign national structures and 293,300 foreigners.
One factor that has been raised many times in interviews with NGOs and lawyers is the difficulty migrants face in obtaining legal representation when they are charged with a crime.
As staff with low wages and limited means, those staff can sometimes only hire one lawyer for free.
Some staff members may turn to their embassies for legal assistance because the consular is provided.
They can also turn to NGOs such as HOME, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) and the Association of Foreign Domestic Workers for Social Support and Training (FAST), who can find pro bono legal representation.
But NGOs said it wasn’t easy for them to find a lawyer willing to take care of a case for free.
As a general rule, your first course of action is to help the migrant employee apply for the Lawyers Society’s (CLAS) Pro Bono Services Criminal Legal Assistance program, which assists others facing crimes other than the death penalty who cannot have an attorney. .
However, there is no guarantee that an employee can place an attorney under the program because the CLAS only covers crimes under certain laws, and applicants will have to submit to resource and merit situations.
The resource test comes to a set of tests that government agencies use to see if a user’s monetary assistance meets the criteria, such as their source of income and the annual price of their home.
The merit check assesses, among other things, that the applicant has moderate grounds to protect his case in court.
Alex Au, Vice President of the Migrant Personnel Rights Organization TWC2, said from his delight that some of the programmes that the NGO is helping staff present are rejected.
Similarly, Seira Ong, senior executive of FAST’s friends and FAST’s volunteer management, said many of the nationals who helped run for the program had also been rejected.
He added that the required documentation is also a challenge for workers, as some of them cannot pay the annual price of their home at home, for example.
In response to questions, the Law Society’s pro bono workplace stated that migrant staff who cannot download legal representation through CLAS can still seek assistance through its ad hoc pro bono assistance program (AHPBS).
However, AHPBS accepts referrals and all applicants have yet to go through resource and merit tests.
About 15 to 20% of claS and AHPBS approved instances concerned migrant workers, the Law Society’s pro bono office said.
In 2018 and 2019, he earned about 650 applications from foreign officials, of which three hundred other people obtained legal assistance.
In 2019, he said he had won 98 AHPBS programs, 15 of which concerned migrant staff and that five staff members received assistance.
For unscovered applicants, NGOs would seek to download legal representation of staff through their own network of lawyers and legal companies with which they have worked in the past.
Some foreign embassies would also interfere for staff to locate a lawyer, Ong said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian embassy said he was offering legal assistance to Indonesian migrant employees. The type of assistance provided, whether it is a legal recommendation or the search for an attorney to constitute the employee, is on a case-by-case basis, the spokesperson added. .
A spokesman for the Philippine Embassy said he was running for the pro bono workplace of the Law Society and Singapore law firms to provide legal representation to Filipino citizens who are experiencing legal disorder here.
For Filipino domestic staff who are not eligible for CLAS but who financially must hire a personal attorney, the embassy can also help you find a personal attorney to advise or set you up.
However, M. Au stated that there have been cases where, even after exhausting all options, TWC2 cannot an attorney to constitute a worker, who would then have to face legal action without constitution.
“We treat everyone as equals, that’s how the formula of justice deserves to work, but we don’t recognize that others aren’t economically equal,” he added.
THERE’S HELP, BUT “THERE AREN’T ENOUGH LAWYERS. “
According to criminal lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed de Muzammil
We believe there are 1,200 lawyers in Singapore who exercise the right to criminals.
The lawyers interviewed stated that they may not take care of all the pro bono instances before them, as they also faced time constraints and had to take into account the other instances that were on their plates.
“Just because it is a pro bono case does not mean that we are going to pay less attention to the case and pay more attention to where we get paid,” he said. Muzammil.
“Once you start a business, whether voluntary or not, you have to give it your center and soulArray. You want who’s willing to do homework right. “
Felicia Ong, a lawyer at Beacon Law Corporation, said a lot of paintings involved in a trial and appeal by criminals.
“Due to limitations, all lawyers, even if they are willing to take over a case for free, will not take over a trial or case that would likely take a few years to complete,” said Felicia Ong, who has assisted migrant staff in Civil and Criminal Cases.
When it comes to deciding to take a pro bono case, Mr. Sunil Sudheesan, who is the president of the Singapore Criminal Lawyers Association, said that one of the main considerations for lawyers is that the case will go to trial.
“Claim-judgment instances inevitably involve a commitment of time. Not everyone attributes the paintings Anil (Ms. Parti’s lawyer) has made, for singles or not,” he said.
“Then, if a CLAS volunteer can time, the trials can take over. Otherwise, the volunteer may assist in cases of “guilty plea “where the time commitment is occasionally less restrictive”.
Felicia Ong said her main considerations were whether she had reveled in the paintings that led the case and whether she had the ability to take it on.
“In my opinion, the same care and determination given to a paying consumer is given to a voluntary consumer, so I would only take one case where I am convinced that I can devote myself completely,” he added.
While your company handles all of the above instances through an NGO, TSMP Law Corporation attorney Melvin Chan said the company is motivated to take instances that will advance the law and have a multiplier effect.
“This way, we are not only this worker, but everyone who comes after him,” said Chan, who helps migrant staff on civil matters.
He cited a 2018 landmark case involving Bangladeshi employee Hasan Shofiqul. Hasan’s employer had inflated the name of his post to avoid paying the overtime fees he entrusted.
The High Court had held that Mr. Hasan, who had been assigned as site supervisor, was not a “framework” within the meaning of the Employment Act and was therefore entitled to payment rates on the days off on which he worked.
“The case has highlighted the practice of incorrectly labeling workers or giving them qualifications that might not reflect the true nature of their employment box to circumvent labor laws and regulations,” Chan said.
The case also generated adjustments to labor law in 2019, added Chan, who has extended the major protections of the law to all employees, regardless of salary and title, whether executive or control positions.
WHEN LANGUAGE BECOMES A BARRIER
A challenge posed through NGOs and lawyers is the language barrier faced by migrant staff when navigating a legal formula that works in English, a language that many of those employees know or even understand.
Migrant staff would face the challenge of language even before their case reaches court, for example, when they are asked to appear before the authorities.
While the police may have an interpreter to help the investigating officer make a statement from the worker, the interpreter may not speak the same language or dialect as the worker at all times. This can also lead to discrepancies in the s.
For example, NGOs and lawyers have raised cases where information from an Indonesian worker is collected in Malay rather than Indonesian Bahasa.
Although the similarity between the two languages means that the agent and the employee can largely perceive each other, some words have other meanings in the respective languages. As a result, employee statements may be distorted.
The same applies to languages such as Tamil, Hindi or Bengali.
M. Au of TWC2 said very well that Bengali translators in Singapore used to speak Indian Bengali instead of Bengali Bengali, which is a little different.
Then there are the staff who speak languages for which it is difficult for an interpreter.
Ms. Seira Ong of FAST referred to the example of a Esrilanqués who speaks Caningals and a limited amount of English.
When the investigating officer read her fees to the employee in English, she “somehow knew but did not know” what she qualified with. “She thinks she did something wrong, but she doesn’t perceive what each and every one says because there are so many rates against her,” Seira Ong said.
He added that it was vital for migrant staff to perceive these small main points because a misinterpretation or perception of their accusations and the case procedure would be their course of action.
Chan of TSMP Law Corporation said the language barrier can also mean that staff did not fully perceive what they were being asked to do and that they would possibly end up making a confession even if they don’t want to.
Muzammil agreed and said that it is imperative that statements be taken as they should be, as they will invariably be used as evidence in a trial.
If employees get misunderstood at this stage, then the lawyer has a responsibility to discover during the trial what the employee really meant by his own, and that’s incredibly complicated to do, he said.
These translation disorders also persist in court, Muzammil said, where the interpreters provided would possibly not be sufficiently qualified in the worker’s local language or in English to provide an accurate interpretation.
Sometimes it can take the form of an interpreter who summarizes or condenses what the employee says, who interpret what says word for word, he added.
It is therefore imperative that courts have qualified language interpreters who master the mother tongue of the migrant worker and English, said Muzammil, who under pressure that misinterpretation can have an effect on the court’s decision.
In response to the questions, the police stated that they would use an interpreter if the interviewee could not perceive the language used through the investigating officer or vice versa.
They added that interpretation will be available in the 4 official languages and other foreign languages, as well as Bengali, Burmese, Indonesian Bahasa, Thai, Vietnamese and Tagalog.
The High Court and state courts have stated on their websites that they provide interpretation to witnesses who do not perceive or speak English upon request.
State courts provide interpretation in:
– Chinese languages: Mandarin, hokkien, teochew and Cantonese
– Malay languages: Malay, Javanese and Boyan
– Indian languages: Tamil, Malayalam and Urdu
The High Court provides interpretation in:
– Chinese languages: Mandarin, hokkien, teochew and Cantonese
– Malay languages: Malay, Javanese and Boyan
– Indian languages: Tamil and Malayalam
A virtual manual available on the Supreme Court’s online page indicates that others who do not speak English or indexed languages will have to rent a personal interpreter. There would possibly be a payment for civil cases, while interpretation is loose for criminal cases.
In response to questions, a state court spokesman stated that he had a database of independent foreign language interpreters to provide interpretation to a witness or defendant if necessary.
These are distinct from the group of in-house interpreters who provide interpretation in the vernacular languages and not in the unusual dialects listed.
He added that all judicial interpreters are “subject to the highest level of competence”. Newly appointed interpreters must pass the certification exam for professional interpreters, which is organized through the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Foreign language interpreters hired through state courts must also provide evidence of their certification and language qualifications before they can be appointed.
Dealing with lost income
In a issued after the High Court’s ruling on Ms. Parti’s case, the defence organization HOME said that migrant personnel are occasionally on hold in Singapore while investigations are ongoing without indication of the length of the process.
Similarly, prosecutions by criminals are slow to complete, Felicia Ong of Beacon Law Corporation said.
During this period, staff can work; without a source of income, it has to rely on NGOs to provide shelter, food and monetary assistance.
In response to questions, a HOME spokesperson said he carefully assesses the monetary wishes of all of the group’s support staff.
The advocacy organization added that its fundraising efforts are motivated by the monetary desires they aim to fulfill.
In the past, HOME had organized a fundraising campaign for Ms. Parti to raise the budget so that she could open a food business in Indonesia. In less than a day, he achieved his purpose by raising S$28,000.
Mr. Shamsul Kamar, Executive Director of the Center for Domestic Employees, said he supported those offering them shelter, food and emotional well-being.
The centre also carries out normal activities and systems, such as fundamental literacy, sewing and cooking categories so that foreign nationals in charge remain engaged until their instances are over.
HOME stated that Ms. Parti had spent nearly 4 years in her shelter awaiting the conclusion of her case. He couldn’t paint or go home to see his family.
Under the circumstances, some foreign staff members would possibly choose to plead guilty even if they are innocent.
The time it would take them to serve their sentences would possibly be shorter than the time it would take them to challenge fees in the criminal justice process, Felicia Ong said.
“Often, their nostalgia and urgent desire to supply their families in the house outweigh their preference to seek justice for themselves,” the lawyer added.
Echoing this, Ms. Seira Ong of FAST stated that the loss of the source of income is at the forefront of the minds of many domestic workers when they are involved in criminal investigations.
He added that in his experience, domestic staff come from giant families where they are the only supporters of the family and, as a result, there is immense tension, emotional and monetary, to continue helping their families.
“It is quite regrettable, however, we see your view that you cannot stay in Singapore because God knows how long you will fight for your rights,” he said.
LEGAL PROCESS APPROVED
Felicia Ong said that even when staff must adequately triumph over language barriers, they may still have a difficult time perceiving how other procedures are compatible with the entire legal process.
Many of them suffer from emotions of anxiety, confusion and helplessness as they navigate the legal system.
A domestic servant who was assisted by the lawyer a year ago cried in almost every assembly they had because the criminal justice procedure seemed very alien and intimidating to her.
“She’s spent a lot of time reassuring her, explaining and repeating legal aspects and the criminal justice process,” Felicia Ong said.
That’s why she said pro bono lawyers like her rely heavily on NGOs for emotional, social and monetary assistance that an employee might want in the process.
Emphasizing the importance of NGOs, Balchandani said in his interview with HOME that “real work” is done through the other people in those organizations.
“It’s what breaks the genuine jaw, the exhausting activity, the assembly (of the workers) every week, every single month and every month, giving them hope that anything smart can happen,” Balchandani said, whom he praised himself through Judge. Chan for his participation, a lot of effort ‘and appearing’ much determination in his work’.
Speaking, Mr. Sudheesan also mentioned Mr. Sudheesan Balchandani’s harsh paintings, but noted that there are many other unsung heroes whose efforts have gone unnoticed.
“We will not have to have many others who are suffering and not getting the effects their efforts deserve,” he said.
“While we are rightly celebrating Anil’s efforts, let us not let the many volunteers who continue to fight for defendants to have access to justice. “
For more data like this, todayonline. com