The Straits Times
Feb 8, 2010
By Melissa Sim & Mou Zongxiao
Private homes illegally converted to house foreign workers
MORE people were taken to task last year for illegally converting their private homes into dormitories, hostels and boarding houses as accommodation for foreign workers and students.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) investigated about 700 private residential properties and is still forcing boarders to vacate the premises of 140 owners. Overcrowding is common, making safety an issue.
The other 560 owners have since stopped taking in lodgers illegally.
In 2008, the URA investigated just 400 cases.
In particular, there was an 18 per cent increase in the number of unauthorised worker dormitories over the previous year, though figures were not available.
The illegal dormitories are being exposed as more people write in to the URA with their complaints, and tip-offs are provided by the public and other government agencies.
The URA said that private apartments and landed homes are meant for residential use and should not be converted into workers' dormitories, which need permission to operate.
Under the Planning Act, illegal conversion of premises can result in a maximum fine of $200,000 and a year in jail. If the offence continues after conviction, a fine of $10,000 a day may be imposed.
Despite URA efforts, checks by The Straits Times showed that illegal workers' dormitories are still prevalent, especially in Little India and Tiong Bahru.
Along Marne Road off Petain Road, The Straits Times found at least two terrace houses housing more than 10 workers each.
In Tiong Bahru, there were at least three such apartments. In other units, there were workers from China and Malaysia who refused entry to The Straits Times. But shoes outside the main door and the drying laundry were signs of the multiple occupants inside.
At three units, occupants said there were eight people living inside. One said the boss had obtained the flat for them.
One landlord, who wanted to be known only as Ms Huang, said she had rented her three-room unit in Kai Fook Mansion in Tiong Bahru Road to eight Malaysians at $1,700 a month.
She said she had nine tenants at first but was told by the URA in December that she could have only eight. Ms Huang said she had not made modifications to her flat.
Private homes as ad hoc accommodation have sprung up over the last few years because of a shortage of dormitories and boarding houses.
A single worker renting a room in one of these converted homes pays about $200 compared with $160 to $180 each month for a workers' dorm in Jurong.
In the middle of last year, the URA found that 140 units in Grangeford condominium in Leonie Hill had been subdivided into 600 units. The developer was taken to action to recover the units.
The Ministry of Manpower warned employers of foreign workers that they are responsible for the well-being of their workers, including providing acceptable accommodation while they are employed.
Employers who fail to provide acceptable accommodation for their foreign workers are in breach of the work permit conditions and may be fined up to $5,000 and jailed up to six months. Such employers could also be barred from hiring foreign workers in future.
Tiong Bahru residents interviewed said they were fine with foreign workers in their midst, but were concerned about the overcrowding in the walk-up apartments, which are about 800 sq ft to 1,000 sq ft and usually have two or three bedrooms.
Interior designer Jo Turner, 31, claimed that her ceiling sprang a leak because there were 10 workers sharing a toilet in the flat above hers.
Ms Turner, like advertising executive Eugene Yip, 38, was mostly worried about the workers cooking over an open flame. About a month and a half ago, unit 1P in Yong Siak Street, housing Chinese national workers, caught fire.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said the fire was accidental and from an electrical source. This could have been caused by a short circuit or overloading of power outlets.
simlinoi@sph.com.sg
mouxiao@sph.com.sg
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Rat-borne disease suspected in foreign worker’s death
AN ORDER has been issued for an unauthorised structure housing foreign workers in Little India to be demolished.
This follows the death of a worker from a suspected rat-transmitted disease – the first time someone has been known to die from this here in a decade.
The makeshift structure, with walls and a roof of corrugated metal, sits at the end of a row of houses on Marne Road, off Petain Road.
The premises came under investigation after the worker’s death on July 11.
A joint statement from six government agencies said the worker was running a fever, vomited and had abdominal pain on July 4.
Admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital on July 9, he died two days later.
The Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported that he was aged 27 and was from Bangladesh.
The results of tests suggested that he had contracted leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread from rats to humans which last killed people here in 2002.
Although forensic investigations are ongoing, The Straits Times understands that – contrary to media reports – he is unlikely to have caught it from a rat bite.
The disease is usually spread by contact with contaminated water or soil.
The statement from the government agencies said the man’s co-workers, housemates and neighbours have not caught the disease.
The agencies which issued the statement were the National Environment Agency (NEA), the ministries of Health and Manpower, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), the Building & Construction Authority (BCA) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
Investigations by the first four agencies found the victim’s living quarters to have been cramped, unkempt and littered with rat droppings.
Fire safety rules were also broken.
The Straits Times understands that employers had been renting the space to house their workers.
MOM declined to name them.
Now that the place has been found unfit as a living space, these employers have been told to move their workers out.
That order has been complied with and the place is now empty and locked – but not for much longer.
Last Wednesday, BCA served a demolition order on the owner of the plot. Yesterday, speaking to The Straits Times, it confirmed that the structure was unauthorised.
It said that the owner has been given one month, until Aug 18, to demolish the structure.
The URA is checking whether the structure infringes planning guidelines and, if that is the case, may take action.
The NEA said the occupier of the illegal structure and the owner of the house next door have been fined for rodent infestation. The amount of the fine is not known.
The MOM and SCDF are also taking enforcement action, but no details are available.
Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, it is an offence to house foreign workers in unacceptable accommodation.
Those found guilty may be fined up to $5,000, jailed up to six months, or both fined and jailed.
Meanwhile, the NEA has engaged a contractor to place rat traps around the area and will step up rat-control measures in the area.
It will also remind residents and shops in the neighbourhood to ensure that food is kept properly covered at all times, to dispose of food waste properly and to keep their premises clutter-free.
janiceh@sph.com.sg
What is leptospirosis?
LEPTOSPIROSIS, a disease spread from rats or other animals to humans, usually surfaces in rural and slum areas, or where there is contaminated flood water.
Its symptoms are flu-like – fever, headaches, chills, severe muscle pain and reddened eyes.
As the infection is bacterial, it is usually treated with antibiotics.
Infection usually occurs when water or soil contaminated with the urine, excreta or tissues of infected animals enters a wound or the eye.
The disease can be caught by consuming contaminated food or water, but it cannot be spread from person to person by casual contact.
Since 2007, there have been between 26 and 64 reported cases a year here, a rate considered low.
In about half the cases, the victims were infected overseas. Almost all were isolated cases.
As leptospirosis is classified as an ‘occupational’ disease, doctors and employers must report cases they come across to the Manpower Ministry.
The Health Ministry’s annual report on communicable diseases says the last-known deaths from leptospirosis here took place a decade ago, when two people died.
Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Hero Mum - Mrs Shanti Baskaralingam
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Hero Mum
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| Selfless mother who saved two kids from runaway lorry now in stable condition | ||||||||||||||
By Aw Cheng Wei | ||||||||||||||
On Friday, the quick-thinking housewife had averted what might have been a tragedy when she spotted a truck heading towards her two children and her as they walked along the sidewalk.
Pratheepa, 15, said they had been heading for breakfast at the hawker centre near their Toa Payoh Lorong 8 flat at 9.45am.
She was walking behind her mother, Mrs Shanti Baskaralingam, and three-year-old brother Sarugesh when a lorry and a container truck collided on the opposite side of the road.
The impact sent the lorry hurtling their way.
'My mother turned and shouted, 'Pratheepa, go away',' she recounted. 'I moved about 1m or 2m back so I wasn't hurt.
'My mother knew she might not have time to carry Sarugesh so she just pushed him away. She wanted us to be safe. She didn't care about herself,' Pratheepa said of her 32-year-old mother.
The truck hit MrsBaskaralingam, critically injuring her. She was warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and had an operation that lasted from 4pm to midnight.
Sarugesh suffered a hip fracture after he fell and was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital.
Husband and father Maheswaran Baskaralingam, 45, told The Sunday Times that he rushed to pick up his third child, Nithya, 13, from school after he was told of the accident.
Nithya said: 'He was crying and told me that my mother and siblings were involved in an accident. I thought he was joking until I saw the police cars and my mother lying a few metres from the lorry.'
When The Sunday Times visited Sarugesh yesterday, his legs were in a cast. His sisters and their maternal grandmother, who had flown in from Sri Lanka, were at his bedside.
Nithya said: 'The doctor told us that his heartbeat would accelerate when he thinks of the accident. He constantly calls for my father.'
Their father, who shuttled five to six times between the two hospitals on Friday night, returned to work on yesterday morning with a heavy heart.
'I still have to work. Who is going to pay the hospital fees?' said the chef. 'This morning, Sarugesh told me, 'Don't go work, stay with me.''
Sarugesh's condition is stable and he has been transferred to a normal ward.
His mother, whose condition is stable, remains in TTSH's surgical intensive care unit.
'The doctor said my wife's right thumb could not be found. The flesh on the right hand had also come off and the doctors had to use the flesh from her thigh for a skin graft,' MrBaskaralingam said.
'Her left arm is broken and the doctors have to insert two metal plates. She also suffered head injuries and as the lorry hit her on her side, her liver, kidneys and stomach were also injured. There was also internal bleeding,' he added.
Pratheepa said she could not sleep on Friday night.
'I was so troubled,' she said. 'I just want my mother to be all right.'
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