Woman finds 2 migrant workers registered to her home address
Madam Lim was shocked when, in early March, she received an SMS from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), informing her that a migrant worker was registered as a tenant at her condominium unit.
The 59-year-old, who declined to give her full name, received another shock when she went online and found that another migrant worker had earlier been registered as a tenant at the same unit.
She had already rented out the Jurong East home to a Japanese couple, and said that she, the rightful tenants and her agent, all had no knowledge about the two migrant workers registered to the unit. Madam Lim has since made a police report, and the police confirmed that a report had been lodged.
“I have been having sleepless nights because of this. If (the workers) got into any trouble, or borrowed money from loan sharks, people would be showing up at my doorstep,” said Madam Lim, a secretary.
“Worse still, my tenants didn’t know anything. If they were suddenly greeted by the police or loan sharks at the door, I am sure they’d be terrified.”
In the SMS from MOM were instructions to check the Foreign Worker Tenant Enquiry Service (FWTES) on the ministry’s website, which Madam Lim did. There, she found that a worker had been registered to her Jurong East condo on Feb 29, and another on March 6, by two different companies – one a transport firm and the other a beauty salon.
She said she immediately blocked the address from being used to register other migrant workers and removed the two workers from its list of tenants before informing the police.
Both companies declined to comment when contacted by The Straits Times.
In response to queries, MOM said that employers are responsible for reporting their migrant workers’ accurate residential addresses.
This is even when their workers look for their own accommodation, as these workers must give accurate information to their employers.
Migrant workers found to have given false information about their address to their employers have had their work permits revoked, and banned from working in Singapore, said MOM.
The ministry added that employers who submit such information without checking will be fined, and may be barred from hiring work pass holders.
Introduced in December 2018, the FWTES replaced the previous system of home owners having to submit hardcopy declaration forms to remove the names of work pass holders previously living at their residences.
It aims to “help detect misuse of home addresses”, according to a written parliamentary reply by the then manpower minister Josephine Teo on Oct 5, 2020.
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