[Kabar-indonesia] 200 maids found in Singapore shophouse; many Indonesian

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Electric News [Singapore]
September 04, 2006  

200 MAIDS STUFFED IN THIS SHOPHOUSE

OUR TEAM'S 12 1/2HR STAKEOUT OVER TWO NIGHTS

MOM officers raid clinic and find about 200 workers in
'unacceptable living conditions'

Clinic doc & his sister, who manages shophouse says...

By Special Correspondents

IF the walls of a two-storey shophouse at Upper Weld
Road in Little India could speak, they would tell a
tale of shame.

It is one of two halfway houses for new maids who come
to Singapore and wait to be sent to their future
employers' homes.

But maids who stayed at the lodging house say the
conditions are bad.

Indonesian Ms Sulis, for example, had a clean and
positive image of Singapore before she came here. But,
hours after stepping off the boat and onto our shores,
the 25-year-old changed her mind.

She found the reality quite different from what she
had imagined.

One night in April, Sulis and 12 other Indonesian
women arrived by ferry from Batam at the Singapore
Cruise Centre at HarbourFront. They were here to work
as maids.

A bus awaited them at the cruise centre. They and
another 30 Indonesian maids were driven to their
lodgings, arriving at 11.30pm. But what they saw
inside upset them, said Ms Sulis.

She said: 'There were so many other women inside. I
saw maids crying. They slept on thin plastic
mattresses.

'Except for two air vents above the door, there were
no windows. The place was badly ventilated with only
one fan.'

She said the shophouse had just one living room and no
other rooms.

Ms Sulis and seven other maids recounted their ordeals
to The New Paper on Sunday.

They had all stayed at the shophouse - unit 25 -
between 2003 and this year.

It is one of two shophouses run by Dr Khoo Yong Hak
and his sister, Ms Dorothy Khoo.

The other unit, a few doors away, also houses Dr
Khoo's clinic.

200 MAIDS FOUND

Manpower Ministry officials inspected that unit and
found 200 maids housed in 'unacceptable living
conditions'. (See report on page 5.)

Most maids usually stay at unit 21 for one or two
nights.

It was apparently being used as a temporary holding
area for the maids before being sent to their
agencies.

An hour after Ms Sulis and the maids arrived, another
busload of Filipino maids came.

The maids we spoke to claimed that the shophouse was
so cramped, there was just enough space to lie down.

Two women appeared to be running the place, said Ms
Sulis.

The maids, who are all from different agencies, said
that they got hardly any sleep.

At 4am, they were woken up by a lady who spoke fluent
Malay and Bahasa Indonesia. She told them to get ready
for their medical check-ups at 5am.

The maids claimed breakfast for them that day was a
slice of bread and a cup of water.

Filipino maid June, 28, who stayed at the shophouse
last December, said: 'A woman cooked rice and fried
cabbage for us in the evening.

'I felt it wasn't enough. We had to wait till 4am for
a slice of bread.'

However, Ms Khoo, who runs the lodging house, said
there are stacks of instant noodles to eat. (See
report on page 4.)

Erna, an Indonesian maid who stayed at the shophouse
last October, said that the women had to share the
only bathroom and toilet.

Said the 25-year-old: 'I had to take a shower in the
dark at 4am, like four other women. The toilet was not
clean. The drainage pipe was choked and water was
flowing out from it.'

June, who stayed at the shophouse for two nights,
added: 'Every morning, I got up at 4am to use the
toilet and bathroom because there were just too many
people.

'Some women didn't get to brush their teeth or shower
because the queue was so long. At 5am, it was time to
go to the clinic.'

Indonesian maid Marliyah, 23, who came to Singapore in
2003, said: 'I had to queue outside the clinic for
more than an hour along with a large number of men who
were odd-job labourers.

'The clinic door was open, but I was told not to go
near the entrance.'

The maids we spoke to said they saw other maids crying
in the shophouse. Others lost their appetites.

Said June, a mother of two, who stayed for two nights:
'It was really depressing. I wasn't mentally prepared
for this. I shivered when I was taken to the
shophouse.

'I wanted to go home because I was afraid that my
employer would treat me in the same way.'

Erna said: 'We had no freedom. We weren't allowed to
go out. We had to do what we were told.'

June said she had trouble adjusting to life here after
that.

'I was so traumatised by the stay in the shophouse
that I kept to myself and hardly spoke to my employer
for a month.'

UNAWARE

When The New Paper on Sunday contacted Erna's agency
at North Bridge Road, an employee said they were
unaware of the housing conditions.

She said: 'The maids usually arrive in Singapore in
the morning and medical checkups are completed on the
same day. Then they go to the agency.'

For the maids who stayed in the Little India
shophouse, the mere mention of Little India makes them
shiver.

Ms Sulis said: 'I just want to put the bad memories
behind. I will never visit Little India again.'

CLINIC'S LIGHTS OFF AT MIDNIGHT, ON BEFORE DAWN

IT was 11.20pm on a Tuesday night in Little India.

>From under a HDB block across the street, The New
Paper on Sunday team observed the Upper Weld Road
shophouse.

At first glance, the area looked like any other sleepy
neighbourhood.

But close to midnight, five young women came out from
the shophouse. They walked close together, often
turning their heads to look behind them, and went into
a brightly-lit clinic a few doors away. We could not
see them from where we were.

At 12.15am, the lights in the clinic went out.

Minutes later, a couple who appeared to be in their
30s stepped out. They locked the doors and walked off
in different directions.

But an hour later, the lights in the clinic, and the
signboard, which reads Teleo Pte Ltd, came on again.
The doors remained shut.

We were there again the next night.

Between midnight and 4am, the lights were off at both
units. Then at 4.30am, more than 20 women came out of
the clinic.

Dressed in T-shirts and jeans, they made their way to
the shophouse. One woman rang the doorbell. No one
answered the door. When they spotted us watching them,
they hurried back to the clinic.

We decided to go to the clinic. What we saw shocked
us.

The room was full. Judging from their accents, many
were Indonesians and Filipinos.

We peered through the shutters and saw some women were
sleeping on the floor while others were curled up next
to each other. A few were sobbing. Many looked glum
and sullen. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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