At this engagement I went to visit one of TWC2’s projects, the Cuff Roads Project, in Little India. This is where they give free meals to the migrant workers. After interviewing a person at this  working with the organisation and speaking to a migrant worker I began to realise that all social and political issues become even more complex as you dive deeper into them. It goes along with the saying the more you know, the less you know. During the interview I started to find it difficult to understand the details of some of the struggles what workers face because these issues are so complicated. When I spoke to a migrant worker I became more aware of the assumptions that I had had internally. I was surprised by the fluency of which the workers spoke english and I was amazed by how humbly their interactions were despite everything they had been through. During my interview the manager of the Cuff Road Project said something that truly resonated with me. She said that if you are privileged, know that you are privileged at the cost of someone else. This made me realise what it really means to take responsibility of the privileges I have.

After watching documentary and discussion from the projector:

One of the things that really shocked me from this event was learning how dependent Singapore is on migrant labour. What surprised me even more is how frequent human trafficking occurs through the transit routed which passes through Singapore.  I was surprised by the variety of stakeholders who are important in human trafficking. A business is equally as important as human rights lawyer. What made me feel sad was the amount of exhaustion that goes in to working in country like Singapore. It costly, there is so much risk, and moreover people see their family. Getting compensation for the abuse if even harder. It made me realise the lengths of hardship that people endure just to be able to provide for their families. In addition, it created a sense of anger as  in an ideal world, these people should be able to provide for their families in the countries that they are from. I was really interested in the cultural aspects of what influences people’s actions. I felt astonished when I realised how difficult this issue is to address, as the changes must step from changing people’s mindset. No policy or law can make a large impact until and unless mindsets are shifted.That way I began to realise you need to understand society first.

What is your motivation for choosing the political issue and range of engagements?

I chose this issue because I wanted to look into a political issue that rarely makes the headlines, but happens so frequently in Singapore. When I first learnt about this issue I was so surprised to learn how close human trafficking was to me in terms of proximity. Someone who is living on your floor in your condo may be experiences human trafficking as domestic worker abuse. This depends on the what you believe classifies as human trafficking. Knowing that I have had domestic worker working for me family, made me more aware of my privileges. I personally see migration as an opportunity for growth. For many of these individuals, it is far from that. Another reason why I wanted to focus on this issue is because Singapore seems to be an almost too perfect city. I am aware that UWC students tend to be blinded by the ‘expat life’. Everything is given to us and perception of the world is so protected. It made me think about what issues Singapore is hiding. Who is marginalised? Often when you think of human trafficking, a Singapore setting is not what comes to mind. It is easy to forget that 20% of Singapore’s population lives under the poverty line.

Not only are we concealed from these human rights issues, but we also lack knowledge about Singapore’s culture. This makes it difficult for us to understanding Singapore’s society and why such human rights violations occur.