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A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

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A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Singapore is virtually the only remaining first-world country where it is legal for migrant workers to be ferried on lorries, a vehicle designed for cargo rather than passengers.

A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Singapore’s Road Traffic Act bans travel on the back of lorries, except for employees of the vehicle owner. Employees are often migrant workers in the construction, shipyard and processing sectors. Photo taken in Kovan, Singapore, Sep 23, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Since the COVID-19 pandemic eased in 2021, there has been a significant influx of migrant workers to Singapore, as building and development projects make up for lost time. They make up roughly 20 percent of the population. Farrer Park, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

It is a placid Sunday morning. A man waits for his colleagues to return to the company lorry after buying breakfast, on their way to work. It is a rare moment of quiet for him. Farrer Park, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Lorries transport workers between large, purpose-built dormitories and their worksites. The cramped living conditions mean that cleaning and airing laundry is a perpetual struggle for residents. Singapore, Oct 8, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

These dormitories are often located in remote areas, making lorry rides one of the only options for transportation. For example, dormitories in the security zone beyond Changi airport are 5 km away from the nearest public bus stop. Singapore, Oct 8, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

In 2019, a working group was set up by the government. It concluded that there was no strong justification for banning lorries, especially as it would negatively impact business. Farrer Park, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Employers pay a monthly foreign worker levy; this amounts to roughly $4 billion a year. Despite huge revenues, the Singapore government maintains that safer alternatives are too costly. Jalan Besar, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Government signs appeared following national news coverage on illegal lorry taxi services in Kranji, where workers do not have adequate public transportation to get to their dormitories. Farrer Park, Singapore, Oct 21, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Designed for cargo and not passengers, lorries are often decked with leg-cut plastic chairs for increased comfort of passengers. There are no seatbelts or significant safety features. Farrer Park, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

After severe lorry accidents in 2001 and 2002, the Singapore government introduced a Maximum Passenger Capacity (MPC) to regulate the number of people on each lorry. Farrer Park, Singapore, Oct 21, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

First-time Bangladeshi construction workers in Singapore pay as much as SG$15,000 in recruitment costs, accruing huge debts to do so. Employers are known to get a cut of these fees. Farrer Park, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

In the face of fatal lorry accidents in 2001 and 2002, the Singapore government implemented stop-gap measures such as mandatory side railings and canopies. Tanjong Pagar, Singapore, Oct 21, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

The tropical sun will turn harsh in an hour. A man sweeps at the foot of a sleek hotel development, before different lorries arrive at the same spot carrying both workers and materials. Rochor, Singapore, Oct 11, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Lorries are also used illegally as a taxi service to bring workers from remote dormitories to cultural areas such as Little India and Farrer Park. They bring workers greater freedom of movement. Farrer Park, Singapore, Oct 21, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

A worker sits on the road to wait for his company lorry, outside the construction site of a government Housing & Development Board (HDB) flat. He is quiet after a long day of work. Kovan, Singapore, Sep 28, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

For over a decade, starting salaries of low-wage migrant workers have remained stagnant. The daily basic salary of SG$18-20 a day has not changed since at least 2009. Rochor, Singapore, Oct 11, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Public spaces in Little India and Farrer Park have been tightly regulated since riots broke out there in 2013. An Indian worker had been run over by a bus and killed, triggering an angry mob. Farrer Park, Singapore, Oct 10, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

“It’s illegal right?” a passer-by asks me as I photograph a parked lorry. He automatically assumed that migrant workers had done something unlawful. “It’s sadly legal,” I tell him. Jalan Besar, Singapore, Oct 21, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

Between 2011 and 2020, 58 migrant workers died in road traffic accidents while being transported in lorries, and 4,765 were injured. Farrer Park, Singapore, Sep 24, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong
A Lorry Ride With Singapore’s Migrant Workers

As of now, there are no plans by the Singapore government to make lorry transport for migrant workers illegal. The two biggest reasons cited are logistical unfeasibility and cost. Farrer Park, Singapore, Oct 21, 2023.

Credit: Ada Cheong

Singapore is virtually the only remaining first-world country where it is legal for migrant workers to be ferried on lorries, a vehicle designed for cargo rather than passengers. The practice remains legal in Singapore, even as countries in the Middle East with large migrant worker populations, like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Qatar, have banned it.

Despite activists and NGOs advocating on this issue for the past 20 years, the Singapore government and industries involved have not shown any inclination toward banning this practice. Following the most recent lethal lorry accidents in July 2023, business chambers and associations issued a joint statement on why phasing lorries out is difficult, highlighting the complexities and costs involved. 

The senior minister of state for transport echoed these concerns, explaining that a ban on lorries would put many companies out of business. To date, there has been no research into costs of alternatives nor a timeline for phasing out this mode of transport. 

Their inertia is paradigmatic of Singapore’s culture of cheap labor, where low cost and competitive profits are prioritized over human lives and limbs. Unsafe transport is just the tip of the iceberg – migrant workers also suffer cramped living conditions, minimal amenities, and exploitative wages in Singapore.

This photo essay presents the experiences and perspectives of low-wage migrant workers, from the lorries they ride in to their dormitories and worksites.

Authors
Guest Author

Ada Cheong

Ada Cheong is a Singaporean who specializes in communications for the nonprofit sector. She now works for Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), an NGO, which advocates for the rights and welfare of low-wage migrant workers. This photo essay, put together during a course with Amrita Chandradas at Objectifs, is part of her wider work in humanizing the struggles faced by exploited communities and individuals, shedding light on injustices, and driving policy change.

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