Singapore—The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced in a Facebook post on Thursday (July 23) that it was aware of an incident involving a foreign worker in the PPT Lodge 1B dormitory that occurred the day before.
The worker climbed up to the fourth floor of his dormitory, also known as the S11 Dormitory @ Punggol, and threatened to jump down.
According to the post, the worker became agitated when his employer “was not facilitative of his return” after he had already bought a ticket to go home to China.
The post from MOM read that the worker had been “staying in a block that was already cleared on 4 July and could have discussed with his employer if he wanted to leave.”
https://www.facebook.com/sgministryofmanpower/posts/3127403370642242
MOM said that it had investigated the incident and that a discussion concerning the worker returning to China had not been held by both parties, which led to a dispute between them.
Fortunately, there was a Forward Assurance and Support Teams (FAST) composed of personnel from MOM, the Singapore Armed Forces and the Singapore Police Force on site, and the dormitory operator was also present. They helped restore calm to the situation and find a solution to the worker’s dilemma after reaching out to the employer.
They were able to get the worker to come down to safety. After this, they advised the employer to facilitate the worker’s return to China, to which he complied.
The post from MOM added that the worker was departing from Singapore on the day the post was published (July 23).
According to The New Paper, a video of the incident has circulated on social media, showing a man on a parapet on the topmost floor of the building. Workers can be seen and heard shouting at the man to come down from the parapet.
Shin Min Daily News said that the incident lasted for an hour, adding that the worker had not been able to get his passport back. Shin Min’s report carried photos of the man standing on the parapet holding on to the railing while a crowd gathered on the ground below, the FAST team talking with the man, and a third picture of the man with his suitcase and belongings being escorted by officials.
The MOM included the following in its post for the information of the public:
“For MOM queries on Covid-related matters
We encourage members of the public to refer to MOM’s FAQs: www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/frequently-asked-questions. If you have further queries and need advice, please contact us through our online form here: www.mom.gov.sg/feedback. For latest updates, subscribe to MOM’s official Telegram: https://t.me/s/sgministryofmanpower.”
Netizens weighed in on the matter of the worker not being allowed to return home on MOM’s Facebook page.
-/TISG
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