From Myanmar to Singapore: Why the maid trafficking continues

After we first heard about a 15-three hundred and sixty five days-old home worker from Myanmar looking for support at a shelter in Singapore in 2016, we thought it used to be an remoted case. Nonetheless at the shelter, we met three other teenage maids from Myanmar who’d furthermore escape far from their employers. One acknowledged she’d been bodily abused; one more fled after her male employer asked her to take a shower with him; a third told us she’d been raped.

Why were younger of us working in Singapore? How did they even obtain right here? We decided to compare.

In our 2016 documentary, we uncovered a thriving replace within the trafficking of underage girls from Myanmar to Singapore. We learned that this used to be going down no matter regulations in both international locations designed to quit the exploitation of susceptible younger girls folk.

In 2014, Myanmar banned all female residents from leaving to became home workers in a international country. Nonetheless we realized that, in villages across the country, recruiters were telling impoverished families their lives would give a get rid of to, if easiest they let their daughters mosey to Singapore.

What they did not issue, in spite of all the pieces, used to be that doing so used to be unlawful, and there may perhaps be dangers eager. What the brokers got in return used to be a decrease of the hefty recruitment charges the girls were obliged to pay.

In step with Singapore regulations, home workers within the affluent island enlighten wants to be at least 23 years old. Nonetheless we came upon out that brokers incessantly bribe officials within Myanmar’s Immigration Division to change delivery dates on passports, to reduction younger girls enter the country.

About a of the girls we met were barely out of their teenagers, and but with fraudulent documents, they were ready to flee detection in Singapore. They told us that earlier than leaving Myanmar, their brokers would dispute them to in no draw hiss somebody their exact age.

The documentary went viral both in Singapore and Myanmar. Nonetheless 18 months later, we learned that very tiny modified. The trafficking continues.

Zin Zin used to be appropriate 15 when she got a passport with a fraudulent delivery date and left for Singapore. She returned dwelling severely injured after she’d fallen from her employer’s dwelling [Al Jazeera]

Young, susceptible and on my own

In 2017, we heard of a series of incidents involving home workers from Myanmar falling from excessive-rise structures in Singapore. After we made enquiries, we came upon out that at least two cases eager younger of us – it used to be then that we realised that no matter popular publicity, underage girls from Myanmar were soundless coming to Singapore.

Over six months, we visited Myanmar a pair of times and tracked down the families of two girls who’d fallen from their employers’ flats. The fundamental lady, Wain Wain, died not as much as a month after arriving in Singapore. After we met her household, they were clearly grieving and in shock.

Then again, their neighbours insisted that the agent who’d recruited Wain Wain used to be to not blame. The identical recruiter had sent at least 60 girls from their village to Singapore and used to be seen as a « benefactor » who used to be serving to get rid of the community out of poverty.

« Thanks to them, fogeys can form money. Fogeys allow them to mosey as we’re wretched, » says one among the villagers who sent two of her girls to work in Singapore. « Shall we issue you are an employer from Singapore, you cannot reach correct now to us. Thanks to the brokers, we are in a position to work there. So we’re grateful to them. »

I in most cases take into accout Wain Wain and her mysterious loss of life. She allegedly committed suicide after being in Singapore for appropriate about a weeks… Or not it’s likely we are going to in no draw know for clear what led to the tragedy. She used to be younger, susceptible and on my own. And now she’s long past.

Lynn Lee, filmmaker

The 2nd lady, Zin Zin, used to be appropriate 15 when she left for Singapore with excessive hopes to enhance her household. She returned dwelling severely injured and may perhaps soundless likely want lengthy-timeframe care.

She identified the particular person she acknowledged helped obtain her a passport with a fraudulent delivery date. It used to be Louis Zung, a member of Myanmar’s parliament and the founder of a firm called Myanmar Global Manpower Hyperlink, the identical agency we exposed in 2016.

Zung denied he used to be occupied with any wrongdoing. Then again, he confirmed he remained a director of the firm except 2016, two years after the ban on recruiting girls folk to work in a international country.

I in most cases take into accout Wain Wain and her mysterious loss of life. She allegedly committed suicide after being in Singapore for appropriate about a weeks. Her sister can’t imagine it.

« She’s not the form of particular person. She wouldn’t dare. Her diagram after our father died used to be to present our mother her have home, » Wain Wain’s sister told us.

Or not it’s likely we are going to in no draw know for clear what led to the tragedy. She used to be younger, susceptible and on my own. And now she’s long past.