Singapore leads the region in COVID-19 with 28,794 confirmed cases as of 19 May 2020. The majority of Singapore’s cases come from crowded foreign-worker dormitories. Singapore is just one of a number of countries in the region where millions of migrant workers concentrate. The accurate number of migrants is difficult to gauge but it’s estimated that in 2019, around 7-8 million migrants are working in Brunei Darussalam (40% of the total population), Malaysia (2-3 million), Singapore (around 1.3 million), and Thailand (3-4 million). These population are at high risk of infection.
This pandemic has brought up issues of ‘hidden apartheid’ not only on grounds of race but also of citizenship. While Covid 19 can infect anyone, some groups are disproportionately affected especially migrants. Border closing and the delineation between ‘citizens’ and ‘non citizens’ is not only contributing to the public health crisis but is also having a devastating effect on the rights and plight of migrant workers.
The practice of excluding non-citizens from essential health services presents a paradox. The paradox of controlling them in confined spaces while advising populations to respect social distancing; paradox of caring for citizens while limiting resources to care for non-citizens who contribute, as much as citizens, to the economy of a country. In Singapore, this paradox has already resulted in a high price that the state has to pay.
