NEW FOREIGN WORKER DORMITORIES

NEW FOREIGN WORKER DORMITORIES

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(Location near industrial areas): **

38.

Mr Cedric Foo Chee Keng asked the Minister for National Development if more new foreign worker dormitories can be located nearer to industrial areas.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: In evaluating suitable sites for foreign worker dormitories, one of our key considerations is the compatibility of the use with the surrounding land uses. As far as possible, we try to site workers' dormitories away from urbanised and built-up residential towns. Many of the dormitories are in fact within or close to industrial areas.

We also allow industrial and warehouse buildings in certain areas to convert some of their space into workers' dormitories, either for their own factory workers, or to house other foreign workers, subject to their meeting certain technical requirements.

However, not all industrial areas can accommodate foreign workers' dormitories. For example, we cannot site workers' dormitories too near to areas where pollutive industries are located, as we need to make sure the foreign workers are not affected by the safety hazards that such industries may pose.

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So, while we will do our best to site workers' dormitories away from residential areas, in less urbanised areas or nearer to industrial areas, some of them may still need to be located at the fringe of residential areas. I hope that Singaporeans will accept their presence in our midst and be more understanding and accommodating towards them, as they are here to contribute to our economic growth.

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