HIRING OF ILLEGAL FOREIGN WORKERS

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim asked the Minister for Manpower, in the light of the number of illegal immigrants coming into Singapore, whether there has been an increase in the number of employers hiring illegal workers, and, if so, whether he intends to amend the legislation to increase the penalties for such employers.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Lee Boon Yang): Mr Speaker, Sir, my Ministry's enforcement officers arrested 1,884 illegal foreign workers in 1997. This includes 333 foreigners who had entered Singapore illegally or had over-stayed beyond the validity of their social visit passes.

For the first two months of this year, an average of 234 illegal foreign workers were arrested per month compared to the monthly average of 157 last year. Out of the total 468 illegal foreign workers arrested in January and February this year, 117 were immigration offenders. The presence of illegal workers creates social problems, affects our law and order and undermines economic upgrading. In view of the current threat of illegal immigration, we will intensify our efforts and work closely with the Police to ferret out the illegal foreign workers.

Illegal foreign workers and those caught employing them face stiff penalties under the law. They can be fined or jailed. Employers of more than five immigration offenders will be caned. My Ministry prosecuted 540 employers for employing illegal foreign workers in 1997. While the Employment of Foreign Workers Act provides for mandatory imprisonment for a second offence, my Ministry has sought deterrent sentences on some first-time offenders. This had resulted in three first-time offenders being sent to jail in 1997. The maximum jail sentence meted out was 100 weeks to a proprietor of a construction company which employed more than 100 illegal foreign workers. The principal contractor of that particular work site was also fined nearly $1.5 million. Furthermore, three employers of immigration offenders had been caned. Notwithstanding the increase in the number of illegal workers arrested recently, the penalties are still adequate. However, my Ministry will monitor the situation closely and, if necessary, adopt more deterrent measures to check illegal employment.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: From the numbers given by the Minister, I get the impression that illegal immigrant workers constitute about one-third of illegal foreign workers. The number seems to be stabilising. So there is no cause for concern that the economic incentive is attracting people across our borders illegally to find jobs. Is that a correct assessment of the situation, Sir?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, while that may be so from the figures that I have just given, we should not be complacent. There is always an incentive for some illegal immigrants to sneak into Singapore to look for employment opportunities. We will continue to maintain the pressure of enforcement action at the work sites where such illegal immigrants tend to crop up.

Mr Jeyaretnam: May I ask the Minister, Sir, whether the Ministry makes any distinction between people who enter the country illegally to work here and those whose stay in this country is rendered illegal by the employers terminating their employment well in advance of the term for which they were granted work permits?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, I do not see the relevance of the point that the Member has raised. But just to answer him, those who enter the country illegally to work, of course, face the penalties under the Employment of Foreign Workers Act and also under the Immigration Act. In the case of foreigners who enter Singapore legally to work and had their work permit cancelled by the employer, they are given a special pass for a short period, during which they should make preparations to leave the country. The understanding with the foreign worker is that he can remain in Singapore so long as he holds a valid work permit. If his work permit has been cancelled or revoked for other reasons, then he must leave the country. We will give them a short period to make the necessary arrangements to leave the country.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Is the Minister aware that these foreign workers, especially those coming from further afield, have paid substantial sums to the agents on the promise that they will be allowed to work for the number of years stated in the work permit, and suddenly after two or three months, they find their stay rendered illegal by the employer terminating their employment and informing his Ministry? Does the Ministry make any distinction for them?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, we understand that some of the foreign workers have to pay certain sums of money to the agents in their home country in order to make the necessary arrangements to come to work in Singapore. But such arrangements are completely beyond the control and influence of my Ministry. The concern and arrangement of a foreign citizen with a foreign agent is totally beyond our control. For those who come to Singapore to work, they enter on the condition that they can only remain here so long as they have a valid work permit and so long as the employer requires their presence here. There is no promise that they will be here for the full duration of the two years for which we grant a work permit, because there is no way that my Ministry can assure every foreigner who comes to Singapore that his employer will have a job for him for four years or six years or whatever period of time that he has indicated. It is entirely up to the foreigner whether to accept or not to accept the job offered by his employer in Singapore. If, for whatever reason, the employer is unable to retain the foreigner in Singapore on a particular job that he has in mind, then he has to cancel the work permit and the foreigner has to leave Singapore. This is the risk of coming here and they are aware of the risk. They have to be prepared to take this risk.

Mr Shriniwas Rai: Sir, for those workers whose employment has been prematurely terminated and should they find a job within two weeks, will his Ministry consider favourably giving them a work permit?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, our approach towards the non-traditional source workers coming here to look for work is that they must have prior approval before they enter Singapore. For those who are here, once their work permit is terminated, and unless there are very exceptional circumstances, they should leave the country. What we cannot afford to have is a very large pool of non-traditional source workers hanging around in Singapore and saying they are looking for work and seeking extension for their immigration permits in order to remain here. They are dragging the process over a long period of time, which means that the number of such people hanging around and looking for jobs will increase. That will cause a lot of the problems that I have mentioned earlier on, ie, social problems, and law and order problems. How are they going to support themselves when they are here looking for jobs? What is there to guarantee that they will find a suitable job in two weeks? In fact, our policy has always been that, for work permit applications, if you are a foreign worker, you must apply for prior approval before you come to Singapore. If you do not have prior approval, we will not entertain any application for work permit in Singapore.

Mr Inderjit Singh (Ang Mo Kio): Sir, my question to the Minister is along the same line as what Mr Rai has asked. In some cases, some of these workers have got sufficient experience. They have worked in the industry for some time but, unfortunately, due to reasons that their companies have to terminate them for whatever reasons, they are forced to go back. But they could be valuable to other companies in Singapore.

Mr Speaker: Order. Mr Singh, can you ask your question?

Mr Inderjit Singh: My question is: will the Minister consider setting up an agency that could provide placement services for such workers?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, it is not easy to offer such placement services to foreign workers. We have placement services to assist Singaporeans who have been retrenched or who have lost their job for other reasons. In the case of non-traditional source foreign workers who are in Singapore, we have had, in the past, on compassionate grounds, tried to place some of those workers who were in fact asked to leave by the employers. We found to our disappointment that our efforts were usually unsuccessful. The number of foreign workers who could be successfully placed and the number of employers whom we could persuade to take up these displaced foreign workers were minimal. As a result, most of the foreign workers had to go back. I think we should stick to this fundamental policy that they come to Singapore to work with valid work permits and with prior approval. If, for whatever reason, the employer is unable to keep him in employment, then he will have to go back. This is the risk that some of them had paid money to come here and this has to be their own look-out. They cannot assume that Singapore streets are paved with gold and they can come here and just continue to have a good job, earn a high salary, and regardless of what happens, they would be able to remain here on various pretexts.