Breakdown of Foreign Domestic Worker Numbers by Nationality

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Manpower what is the rationale for the Ministry's reluctance to provide a breakdown of the number of foreign domestic workers in Singapore by nationality.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mdm Speaker, MOM does not provide a breakdown of the number of foreign workers, including foreign domestic workers by nationality as it is not in Singapore's interest to do so. Disclosing such detailed data may create sensitivities among certain groups of people here and also in the countries of origin.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): I thank the Minister of State for the answer. Just a quick clarification. In countries such as Australia, they publish data on a quarterly basis on the numbers of work visa holders, broken down by countries of origin and, with respect, I do not see how sensitive this can be. Perhaps, the Minister of State can clarify this further and would the Ministry reconsider this position?

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: I thank the Member for the interest in this topic. I remember at the last sitting the Member also asked the same question. With regard to the population's statistics in Australia, I remember Deputy Prime Minister in one of his Committee of Supply's speeches had addressed that. I would not want to delve into the details. But suffice to say that Australia and Singapore are quite different in terms of population size and also in terms of the domestic workers and the foreign workers. In Australia, you hardly see any foreign domestic workers.

Coming back to addressing your question, why we do not disclose this piece of data is because of the sensitivity involved. Because of the sensitivity, I would rather not go into the details of why the data cannot be disclosed. But I hope the Member would understand that this is done so for the national interest and also for the interest of protecting the Singaporean households.