What We Do

Accounts of abusive treatment of foreign domestic workers, of male foreign workers being housed in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, of workers of both sexes being underpaid or otherwise deprived of money that was due to them, of employers discovering workers lacked the skills they’d been led to expect of them….there seem to be so many worrying and disturbing stories connected to migrant workers and their position in our country.

What can be done about them?

TWC2 believes that the most effective responses will be those based on research that produces realistic assessments of the migrant workers’ role and conditions, looks at the needs and expectations of all the parties concerned and clarifies what the problem areas are. We therefore undertake and encourage research.

We think that prevention is better than cure. Changes in public attitudes, in the practices of agencies and official bodies in Singapore and in countries that send workers here, in law and regulations could improve conditions for both workers and employers in the future. By seeking to bring about these changes, TWC2 hopes that the conditions that lead to many of the stories of unhappiness and injustice that we hear about can be removed or improved. This is what we mean when we talk about advocacy. It is central to TWC2’s work. 

We also need to deal with problems of here and now: the kind that won’t wait for research to be concluded, attitudes to change or rules to be re-written. This has led to our involvement in providing direct services. We acknowledge and respect the dedicated work done by other bodies in this area, but the appeals and requests for help that TWC2 has received since it was launched told us that there was a genuine need for us to take this on.