'Radicalised' Bangladeshis – Ex-ISA detainee slams Government for not caring about helpless migrant workers

Teo Soh Lung who was detained in the 1980s for an alleged Marxist plot against Singapore has hit out at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in the way the Ministry announced the detentions and deportations of the “radicalised” Bangladeshi workers.
In a Facebook post, she noted that the arrests of these 27 Bangladeshi workers were made between 16 Nov and 1 Dec 2015, but that it took MHA more than two months to inform “Singaporeans and the world about their disappearances under our notorious Internal Security Act (ISA)”, and queried “why”.
“Is it because Singapore’s human rights record will be up for review at the United Nations on 27 Jan 2016 and MHA is obliged to disclose these arrests, imprisonment, deportations and imprisonment now?” she asked.
Commenting that the public does not know if there are similar cases before this instance, she wondered “what was the length of detention before repatriation”, as this is not disclosed by the Ministry.
“Clearly, this shows that MHA does not give any regard to these migrant workers,” she said.
She also noted that the 27th Bangladeshi who is now serving a prison sentence for attempting to leave by illegal means is described as not a member of the group of 26 already deported (in paragraph 2 of the Ministry’s statement) but that in another paragraph (in para 7), he is described as a “fellow group member”.
“The inconsistency shows that MHA does not care about migrant workers who are helpless in Singapore”, she asserted.
Ms Teo further asked if the respective embassy was informed of their arrests and what are the views of the embassy on this serious matter.