I will never walk again: Injured foreign worker's journey home to China

I will never walk again: Injured foreign worker's journey home to China

By Toh Yong Chuan, The Straits Times

More than 13,000 workers were hurt on the job last year. Of these, about 600 suffered major injuries. The road to recovery is especially hard for foreign workers. Some leave Singapore after receiving compensation, others leave empty-handed. Manpower Correspondent Toh Yong Chuan and Photojournalist Kevin Lim trace one injured worker's journey home to Ganyu, China.

His flight from Singapore to Qingdao, China, was not due to leave Changi Airport until 1.45am.

But at 4pm, some 10 hours beforehand, construction worker Meng Xiangbo was all packed and dressed to go to the airport for his Scoot flight. "I am ready to go home," says the 39-year-old in Mandarin. "I have not seen my wife and two children for about a year since I went back home between my job contracts." He adds: "I came here to work in early 2010 with one piece of luggage and a backpack.

"Now I am going home with the same luggage and backpack. And that wheelchair."

Matter-of-factly, he points to a black wheelchair next to him in the six-bed, non-air-conditioned ward on the third storey of Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital.

Mr Meng Xiangbo leaving Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital for the airport with the help of volunteers from HealthServe on March 25. He snaps at one for being rough with the wheelchair. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

"The wheelchair has replaced my legs," says Mr Meng as he sits up in bed, the rest of his body from the waist down, inert. "My legs are paralysed. I cannot stand."

"I will never walk again."

• About work injury compensation

• Workers who are hurt on the job are covered by the Work Injury Compensation Act (Wica), which allows workers to claim compensation for work-related injuries and occupational diseases.
  They can also claim medical expenses, a lump sum for permanent injuries, and wages while on medical leave.
  Claims can be made for up to one year from the date of the accident. Workers file claims with the Manpower Ministry (MOM) directly, without needing to go through a lawyer.
  When an injured worker makes a claim for permanent injury, doctors will assess the extent of the incapacity. The compensation will depend on the injury's severity, and the worker's age and salary at the time of the injury.
  Younger workers and those who earn more will thus receive higher compensation.
  There are caps on compensation: $204,000 for death, $262,000 for permanent incapacity and $36,000 for medical expenses or for one year from the date of the accident, whichever comes first.
  Work injury compensation is paid by insurers. Employers who hire foreign workers on work permits must cover them with Wica insurance.
  MOM said most Wica claims take three to six months to resolve. 15,679 Wica claims were awarded last year, up from 14,221 in 2015.
  Injured workers can also sue their employers in court. They will need to hire lawyers and pay legal fees.
  Wica does not cover maids, contractors, self-employed workers and uniformed personnel such as police officers.

CRUSHED BY CONCRETE SLAB

The last time Mr Meng stood on his own two feet was Sept 4 last year.

He was working as a carpenter at a construction site in a public housing project in Sembawang when a slab of pre-fabricated concrete wall being hoisted by a crane fell on him. The crane operator could not see him.

"Everything was fuzzy. I remember a sharp pain on my back and legs. I could not move," he recounts from his hospital bed.

He cannot remember how he got to his initial port of call, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). But he recalls a doctor there telling him that the nerves along the spine at his lower back were severed, and would not heal. "The news was hard to accept," he says.

He hid the injury from his family for more than a month: "I did not want them to worry about me. What can they do even if they know?"

He spent about two months at TTSH before being transferred to the Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital to recuperate while the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) sorted out work injury compensation. "The (TTSH) doctor said there was nothing more they could do for me," he recalls.

His employer, Ban & J Construction, a sub-contractor, only visited him once in the hospital, he says. "It was to return my passport because I need it to go home."

At Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan, which is a community hospital, Mr Meng met social worker Jeffrey Chua from HealthServe, a non-governmental organisation that provides healthcare services, counselling and shelter for injured foreign workers.

Mr Chua says: "When I first met Mr Meng in November, he was really worried about his family's finances. He is the only breadwinner. I flagged his case to MOM for attention."

The ministry tells The Sunday Times that it was alerted to Mr Meng's plight by HealthServe in November and expedited the compensation claim.

On Feb 6 this year, five months after the accident, Mr Meng was told that he would receive $327,500 in compensation. It is the highest amount that injured workers can receive under the Work Injury Compensation Act, for those like Mr Meng whom doctors certify as completely disabled and unable to work for the rest of their lives.


MONEY A WORRY

The money may look like a lot, (but it) will eventually run out in three to five years...This is so that I can go home instead of dragging out the case.

MR MENG XIANGBO, referring to the compensation payout of $327,500 and why he accepted it rather than sue his employer for more.

Of the amount, Mr Meng says: "The money may look like a lot, (but it) will eventually run out in three to five years."

However, he decided to accept it rather than sue the employer in the hope of getting a higher amount, a process that can take several years.

"This is so that I can go home instead of dragging out the case," he says.

But while Mr Meng received his $327,500 cheque in February, he still could not go home - the employer dragged its feet in paying him nearly $19,000 in wages that accrued when he was on medical leave. He received the amount only in the middle of last month.

It also claimed that it could not afford Mr Meng's plane ticket home.

The MOM stepped in, paying $732 for two one-way tickets for Mr Meng and social worker Mr Chua to go to Qingdao.

On March 25, more than six months after the accident, Mr Meng set off for home.

'WHAT IS THERE TO SMILE ABOUT?'

Mr Meng breaking into a rare smile while taking a wefie with manager Jeffrey Chua (holding camera) and volunteers Zhang Xihong (left) and Wang Qingguo at Changi Airport Terminal 2. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Mr Zhang Xihong and Mr Wang Qingguo, two workers from China staying at the HealthServe's shelter for injured workers in Geylang, turn up at the hospital at 8pm to accompany Mr Meng to the airport.

At one point, Mr Meng gets annoyed when Mr Wang does not handle the wheelchair gently. "Be careful, the wheelchair is important (to me), cannot damage it," he snaps.

Mr Meng keeps to himself in the taxi to the airport, where Mr Chua is waiting. At the airport, the four pose for a wefie in front of a Merlion statue. Mr Chua coaxes Mr Meng to smile.

"What is there to smile about?" the latter retorts.

"You are putting this behind and going home to your family," Mr Chua replies. Mr Meng smiles, tentatively at first.

As a stewardess helps Mr Meng from a wheelchair to his seat in 12D, a red plastic bag falls from underneath his brown sweater.

"I am sorry. Be careful with it," he says, embarrassed.

It hides a urine bag that the nurses had connected to a urinary catheter. Mr Meng cannot control his bowels and urine. He wears adult diapers and a urine bag for the journey.

Mr Meng being helped by a stewardess into his wheelchair upon arrival in Qingdao on March 26. It is a four-hour drive to reach Mr Meng's village in Ganyu district, Jiangsu province, from the airport. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

The plane takes off at 2am. He sits upright throughout the six-hour flight, dozing off occasionally, but is never fully asleep.

When the plane lands, Mr Meng's younger brother Meng Fanjin, 37, wife Yuan Jie, 43, and cousin Meng Ning, 34, are waiting.

The reunion is undramatic. There are no hugs or tears.

Mr Meng insists on wheeling himself to the waiting car.

It is a four-hour drive to Mr Meng's home in Ganyu's Shimen (stone gate) village. Home is a two-storey, four-bedroom terraced house, on a land about the size of two five-room Housing Board flats, built in 2015 at a cost of about $50,000. Living there are his wife and son Meng Xiangjin, 10. Daughter Meng Yuan, 16, studies at a boarding school in the city and comes home every fortnight.

There are five steps from the courtyard to the living room. "Let me carry you," says Mr Meng Fanjin, piggybacking his older brother into a bedroom on the ground floor.

"I need to lie down," Mr Meng says. "I am very tired."

He falls asleep almost as soon as he is laid down on the queen-sized bed. His wife cooks a lunch that includes buns, fried beans with pork, steamed fish, fried cucumber with meat from a pig's head and cold quail eggs that are eaten together with their shells.

"These are local dishes that he likes," she says. "But he is sleeping now. You come back tomorrow."

'I AM HOME, BUT I FEEL LOST'

Mr Meng being pushed along by his younger brother Meng Fanjin, 37, upon arrival in Qingdao. Also at the airport to receive him are his cousin Meng Ning, 34, and his wife Yuan Jie, 43. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Mr Meng Xiangbo's wheelchair at his two-storey home in Shimen village in Ganyu. His bedroom is on the ground floor. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

The next day, Mr Meng is still wearing the same jacket that he wore on the plane. "I am home, but I feel lost," he says. "I regret going to Singapore. If I hadn't gone, I would not have been injured."

When asked about his plans, he stares out of the window, saying: "I might look for a doctor in the larger cities like Nanjing. They might be able to help me."

Mrs Meng adds: "I am more worried about money. There is no one working to support the family now."

At about noon, Mr Meng's son Xiangjin comes home from primary school for lunch.

He hugs his father and holds his mother's hands. She whispers into his ear and hugs him. They cry. Mr Meng looks away, his eyes welling up.

Mr Meng and his wife Yuan Jie on his first day back at home. As Mr Meng was the sole breadwinner in the family, the couple are worried about the future. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Later, Mrs Meng told The Sunday Times that she asked her son to study hard and not worry about his father's condition.

On the third morning, the journalists and Mr Chua visited the family to say goodbye.

Mr Meng's father, 66-year-old Meng Qingbin, showed this reporter his hands. His left hand is missing a thumb.

"We are a family of construction workers. I lost my thumb in 1974 in a worksite accident," he says.

Mr Meng's father Meng Qingbin, who was also a construction worker, said he lost his left thumb in a worksite accident in 1974. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

"It was a minor injury compared with my son now."

Mr Meng's brother Fanjin, who is also a construction worker, says he had thought about going to Singapore to work. "Not any more."

When asked how he feels about his brother's disability, he choked as he tried to answer.

He took out a notebook from his shirt pocket, tore off a page and wrote, ku du yu sheng.

The phrase 'ku du yu sheng' that Mr Meng's brother Fanjin wrote when asked how he felt about his brother's disability. It means suffering for the rest of one's life. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

The phrase means suffering for the rest of one's life. "This is how my brother's life will now be," he says.

New money transfer kiosks help foreign workers skip queues

New money transfer kiosks help foreign workers skip queues

By Aaron Chan, The Straits Times

Local FinTech enterprisePay2Home Group is launching automated kiosks that let foreign workers carry out financial transactions such as remitting money to their home countries.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has approved these money transfer machines (MTMs) .

The first machine was installed two weeks ago at North Coast Lodge in Woodlands, and another will be launched yesterday at Averic Woodlands Dormitory, also in Woodlands.

These machines allow users to access multiple remittance services directly through the kiosks.

Services offered include money transfers, foreign exchange rate quotations, transaction payments using bank accounts and checking of transaction history.

The machines will allow workers to skip the long queues often seen at remittance agents.

"Queues at remittance agents can go up to two to three hours long, and having these kiosks will make the process faster," says Mr Khandakar Noman, 34, who lives at Averic Woodlands Dormitory and has been working in Singapore for the past 12 years.

Each machine will be available in eight languages - Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Bengali, Burmese and English.

Pay2Home Group has also prepared incentives to attract early adopters of the kiosk. They include free memberships and lower commission rates, as well as no commission fees for transactions to India and Bangladesh.

The project, which cost $5 million, was first conceived in mid-2014, with a pilot launch in January 2015.

Mr Wayne Salamonsen, 42, director of Pay2Home Group, said that the pilot helped it to identify how to make the machines more user-friendly.

"We were able to interact with customers while they used the kiosk to see what they managed to do themselves, where they had issues in the flow or process and where they needed help," he said.

Mr Ryan Lim, 43, a polytechnic lecturer who specialises in fintech, said: "It is good to see that our local enterprises are coming up with innovative solutions that provide financial solutions to the under-banked.

"Such creative solutions also prove that fintech is not only economically viable, but also has the potential to make a significant impact in people's lives," he added.

Correction note: This story has been edited to refer to Pay2Home Group as local FinTech enterprise, instead of  local start-up. We are sorry for the error. 

Pay2Home launches Money Transfer Machines for foreign workers to remit money home

Pay2Home launches Money Transfer Machines for foreign workers to remit money home

By Aaron Chan, The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Local FinTech enterprise, Pay2Home, has launched Money Transfer Machines (MTMs) which allow foreign workers to remit money to their home countries.

The first machine was launched two weeks ago at North Coast Lodge in Woodlands, and another will be launched on Wednesday evening (April 26) at Averic Woodlands Dormitory, also in Woodlands.

These machines allow users to access multiple remittance services, directly through the kiosks.

Services offered include money transfers, foreign exchange rates, transaction payments using bank accounts and checking transaction histories.

The machines will allow workers to skip the long queues often seen at remittance agents, saving them many hours.

Each machine comes in eight languages - Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Bengali, Burmese, and English.

The project was first conceived in mid-2014, with a pilot launch in January 2015. The total project cost about $5 million.

Correction note: This story has been edited to refer to Pay2Home Group as local FinTech enterprise, instead of  local start-up. We are sorry for the error. 

Migrant workers contribute to local arts scene

Migrant workers contribute to local arts scene

By Olivia Ho, The Straits Times

Some migrant workers here are using their limited free time to chase passions such as poetry, photography and painting

Most of the week, they toil in homes and at construction sites. But as they climb scaffolding or clean windows, lines of poetry or song bloom in their minds. Sometimes, their fingers, clenched around a drill or a broom, yearn to close instead around a paintbrush or a camera.

Foreign workers here are using their scant free time to pursue art, with more in recent years stepping up their contributions to the local arts scene.

On a recent Saturday evening, more than 60 people packed the second floor of a Rowell Road shophouse to hear Bangladeshi workers recite their poetry. They were joined by local poets such as Cyril Wong, Ng Yi-Sheng and Deborah Emmanuel.

But the spotlight was on the workers, who mostly recited in Bengali with the help of a student translator to an audience of Singaporeans and foreigners packed shoulder to shoulder, many standing in the aisle or sitting on the floor.

The first-time event was organised by Mohammed Mukul Hossine, a Bangladeshi construction worker who last year became the first foreign worker to have a poetry collection put out by local publisher Ethos Books.

It joins existing events such as the three-year-old Migrant Worker Poetry Competition.

Migrant workers and Singaporeans packed into a shophouse to listen to workers recite their poems in Bengali and translated by a student. ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG

(Above from left) Indonesians Nur Hidayati, 31, and Wiwik Triwinarsih, 32, and Bangladeshi Mahbub Hasan Dipu, 28, are three of the five migrant workers who helped design a mural at the Goodman Arts Centre as part of the Migrant Workers Awareness Week. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG

Previously, these were mostly organised for workers by local volunteers, whereas nowadays, the workers themselves are more involved in getting seen and heard.

Mukul, 26, forked out $500 - at least half his monthly salary - for the event, which he hopes to organise every three months or so.

"It is the perfect way to make friendships and to bring our poetry to Singaporeans," he says.

It was supported by migrant community clinic Healthserve and advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), which let the poets use its shophouse space for free. Mukul covered other expenses, such as a printed banner.

Engineer Rajib Shil Jibon, 30, recited his poem about gazing at the moon from his dormitory canteen. "It makes me forget I am of a different nation from you," he explains. "I become a son of nature."

The workers have, in turn, left their mark on local poetry. Construction worker S. Rahman Liton's use of the nucleus poem, a Bengali form with a syllable count based on the number of electrons in the subshells of an atom, was adopted as a prompt in the ongoing Singapore Poetry Writing Month, or SingPoWriMo, where participants must write a poem every day of this month and post it on Facebook.

A new poetry anthology by 18 workers, Migrant Tales, came out in December and sells for $10 in stores such as Books Kinokuniya, BooksActually and Booktique.

Its co-editor, construction supervisor Zakir Hossain Khokan, 39, says it has sold 500 copies and he hopes to use the profits to fund two book fairs of Bengali literature at Booktique and Mustafa Shopping Centre at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Filipino domestic helper Angela Barotia last year won an accolade overseas for her lead role in the local feature film Remittance, about the experience of being a maid in Singapore.

Remittance, which was shot in 2013 in Singapore and the Philippines, garnered Barotia, 39, a Best Actress Certificate of Outstanding Achievement at the Brooklyn Film Festival in New York. It had its first screening in Singapore last month at the National Gallery Singapore.

The mother of two girls aged 10 and 15 auditioned because she wanted something more from life here. "I just wanted to do something different besides going out on Sundays for picnics and walking around Orchard Road," she says.

She was working at the time for a British family, who agreed to let her take part. The directors arranged for another worker to take over her chores during the three-month shoot.

Filming hit too close to home for her at times. One scene, in which the character argues with her husband back home, was painful to enact because she was drawing on personal experiences.

When she goes home to the Philippines, everyone assumes she is now rich and famous because she was in a film. The truth is, however, that she was not paid because that would have been illegal, given her work permit.

The pursuit of art is enough of a struggle for local artists, few of whom can afford to make art full- time. It is an even greater challenge for foreign workers, whose lives are circumscribed by long working hours, the financial burden of sending money home and the vagaries of work permits, which can be cancelled at an employer's whim.

Mukul was almost repatriated last year when his previous employer abruptly cancelled his work permit and gave him 10 days to find a new job. At the eleventh hour, he was hired by design and installation company Dezign Format, which supports his literary pursuits.

The members of Migrants' Band, a music group comprising mostly Bangladeshi workers, find it difficult to meet every weekend at TWC2's space to rehearse on donated instruments.

They have a core group of about 15, who perform at migrant arts events as well as at worker dormitories and also for the public. Last month, they played at underground music store Melantun Records in Far East Plaza.

Construction worker and singer Mohammad Sheid Rana, 27, says: "All the men are working and we have different (days off)." But he makes time even when he is exhausted because he is never happier than when he is belting out Bengali love songs in front of a crowd.

Many workers see art as a way to reach out to Singaporeans, from whom they are often separated by language barriers.

Indonesian helper Wiwik Triwinarsih, who writes and draws at night when she cannot sleep, recently helped to design a mural that is on display at the Goodman Arts Centre until the month's end.

"I want this mural to help me communicate that we are all human, we also have families and we need time for them," says the 32-year-old. "Our hearts are in two places."

The 2m by 2.4m mural was produced last month as part of Migrant Workers Awareness Week, an annual programme in its third year organised by National University of Singapore and Yale-NUS students to bridge the gap between the local and migrant communities.

It was designed by five migrant workers with the aid of arts education platform Mural Lingo and painted with the help of members of the public. Ms Wiwik, a Muslim, drew inspiration from a poem she wrote about the anguish of having to skip evening prayers to finish her chores.

Activist Debbie Fordyce, a TWC2 executive committee member, says: "We have to recognise there is an awful lot of unrecognised talent among migrant workers. We tend to think of them as just workers. They're not.

"I hope all of them will one day be able to go back home and follow their passions without having to work abroad to survive."

That is what Indonesian helper Suyamti, who goes by one name, hopes to do. After attending a photography course by non-profit organisation Aidha, the 44-year-old saved up for more than a year to buy a $1,350 DSLR camera.

Now she spends her days off organising shoots for a group of amateur photographers.

She dreams of saving enough to set up her own photo studio back home. "I feel happy when I get a good shot," she says, "but there is so much more I need to learn."

Three jailed 10 weeks for using fake certificates to apply for work passes

Three jailed 10 weeks for using fake certificates to apply for work passes

By Chew Hui Min, The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - Four foreign workers were charged on Thursday (April 6) over submitting fake educational certificates for their work pass applications, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said.

The four used forged academic certificates to obtain and renew their Employment Passes (EP) and S Passes, and held jobs such as restaurant manager, assistant manager, chef and facility executive.

They include two men from India, aged 35 and 27, a 28-year-old woman from the Philippines and one Vietnamese man, 24.

The three men pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 10 weeks' jail each.

The Filipino woman's case was adjourned to April 27.

MOM said it verified with the academic institutions that the certificates were forged.

"Using forged educational certificates to obtain work passes is a serious offence. We will prosecute the foreigners and permanently bar them from working in Singapore," said Mr Kandhavel Periyasamy, director of employment inspectorate at MOM.

MOM reminded employers to ensure that their selection and recruitment processes of foreigners are rigorous.

"They should check the authenticity and quality of their work pass applicant's academic qualifications," the ministry said in its statement.

As an additional safeguard, MOM conducts additional checks and verifications on applications.

Anyone convicted of submitting forged academic certificates may be fined up to $20,000, and/or jailed for up to two years.

In the last two years, 73 foreigners were convicted and permanently barred from working in Singapore.