Topic: Plight of Foreign Domestic Workers

Hello everyone. This is Estella and I have chosen the topic regarding the plight of foreign domestic workers, or FDWs for short, because I feel that many people perceive them in a bad light and there is not enough awareness on the problems they face. There is also the perception of these FDWs as thieves or child abusers. However, this is merely a generalisation caused by the negative image that media has portrayed of them. We often see news of them abusing children and stealing money from their employer. But how often do we see news of these FDWs in a positive light? I believe the absence of such news is because it is simply not sensational enough, thereby misleading the public into thinking that all foreign domestic workers are thieves or abusers.

Do you think that cases of FDWs being mistreated or abused by their employers are rare and few? Well, think again. Many people often focus on the physical abuse that these foreign domestic workers suffer from; therefore I would like to touch on the unseen aspect of abuse that they suffer from, which is psychological abuse.

Qingpei, one of the 20 students who went on the Philippines trip, tells us about an example of the psychological abuse that these FDWs suffer from.

“Psychological abuse can be in the sense that the employers criticise them, scolding them words like “stupid”, “dumb”, “idiot”… Some employers want to save money then they don’t allow their foreign domestic worker to call home to their families. This is quite terrible because the foreign domestic workers miss their families a lot.”

By denying them of the right to call home; by insisting that they wake up so that they can fix us supper- by depriving them of such basic rights, are we even treating them as human? This is a job, which is 24/7. This is a job whereby the FDWs are overworked and underpaid. So, are we really treating them as our Domestic helper? Or slave? And so what if there are “off days” or rights for these FDWs? Many a time, even if they are aware that they are entitled to some basic rights, what happens is that these FDWs do not dare to ask for them for fear that their employer would be displeased.

Yes, there have been cases of FDWs lying to their employers or stealing from them. But why are we condemning the whole group of them just because of a minority who give the rest a bad name? And what is more important is to ask ourselves, why did they do this? Why do some of them have to lie to their employers so that they will be sent back home after they took such pains to come here? Logically, they would not do so. So, was it because they could not stand the stress they are put under to complete their chores in time and simply want to go back home? Was it because their employer mistreated and deprived them of the most basic respect and rights that they deserve?

Let’s find out as Qingpei tells us more about how difficult it is for these FDWs to come to Singapore.

“For the foreign domestic workers to come to Singapore, it is quite difficult if they go through the legal way because they have many documents they need to get signed. Although when we went to Philippines, the Philippines government told us that they would be setting up Internet stops where it’s like one stop for all the documents to get signed. But apparently, it is not done yet and also since many of the foreign domestic workers come from very poor villages, so there is a question whether they have access to these stops or not.

As I have mentioned earlier, these FDWs don’t know what they are entitled to; or even if they do, they don’t dare to ask the employers for the rights they deserve, as they are afraid of being sent home.

Qingpei tells us about a case whereby the FDW did not get her pay even though the employer promised to send her the money when the contract ends.

“There was this lady we interviewed in the Philippines. Then, she worked for the family for 8 years. The family is made up of a single mother and two sons. Her job scope is a foreign domestic worker but she did more than her responsibilities. She helped the employer, who is the owner of a maid agency to collect the maids from the airport and she helped to train the maids. She helped the employer to do the paperwork. Not only did she not get extra pay, she actually didn’t get any money at all because the employer told her that she would help her to save up the money and she would give it back to her when the contract ends. So after her contract ended, and she went back to the Philippines, the employer told her that she would send the money to her. But in the end, the employer not only did she not send the money to her, the employer also didn’t reply to any of her letters. But the funny thing is, till today, the foreign domestic worker does not blame the employer- she just wants her money back.”

I feel that creating awareness about the plight of these FDWs is not so that people can start sympathising with them. What is more important than sympathy is to highlight the hardships these FDWs have to go through in order to come to Singapore to work so that people will be less critical of them. Also, the purpose of creating awareness is not to show that Singaporeans are ugly and mean; but to highlight the prevailing problems so we can take measures against it. At the very least, we should learn how to treat these FDWs with respect.