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Virus Surge Among Migrants Highlights Singapore's Two-track Economy

VOA News

   It's a side of Singapore not often seen: Colorful T-shirts hang from
   the bunks, or from rods attached to the beds as makeshift closets. The
   taupecoloredwalls of the dorm room are bare, except for the occasional
   fan jutting out.

   But the foreign workers'dormsarecoming into the spotlight as COVID-19
   surges among their residents, forcing Singapore to bring back
   restrictions it thought had already stemmed the spread of the disease.
   The latest wave of infections, mostly among migrant workers, highlights
   how Singapore ricocheted from a seeming success case to having the most
   infections in Southeast Asia.

   Out of 18,778 virus cases reported by Monday, 16,393 came from workers
   living in dorms, according to the Singapore Ministry of Health. The
   workers are part of the island's two-track economy, which attracts
   British traders and bankers, as well as Philippine cleaners and
   Bangladeshi construction workers. The latter tend to reside in dorms,
   bunking up to 20 people a room."Transient Workers Count Too,"anadvocacy
   group, said it had been warning that this crowding posed a risk for
   viral spread.

   "There's no denying now that density and poor ventilation in our dorms
   are key factors enabling pathogen transmission," said Alex Au, the vice
   president of the organization.

   Howeverhe said that the dorms are just a symptom of a broader issue.

   "I would point out that Singapore has an addiction to cheap labor," he
   said in a webinar. "We have an economic model that is reliant on them
   for our prosperity."

   Migrant workers are in the spotlight now because they account forthe
   vast majority ofnew COVID-19 cases in Singapore, a nation better known
   for gleaming towers and "crazy rich" Asians than manual labor.

   Before then, the focus had been on the rapid response of the
   technocratic government, dominated by a single party. Singapore was
   hailed alongside states like South Korea and Taiwan because it quickly
   treated patients, contact traced, and cut off foreign travel.

   But travel restrictions wouldn't address domestic transmission of
   COVID-19, which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said was "hidden" as it
   spread, particularly among laborers. Daily cases have passed 1,000
   multiple times in the past three weeks, versus a few hundred before
   that.

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