Migrant Workers And Criminal Justice
11 September 2020
When migrant workers are accused of offences, the most immediate challenges they face are shelter and daily necessities. Domestic workers may come to HOME’s women’s shelter from the police, with nowhere else to go, particularly if their employment agents are not willing to house them, or if they do not have an agent at all. Scrimping on bus fare, some men walk hours to our office, having slept on park benches or void decks.
Police investigations are stigmatising for anyone. But for migrant workers, the consequences can be devastating. When their employment is terminated, they are issued with a Special Pass, which legalises their stay, but which prohibits them from working. In the rare instances where the investigating agency grants permission for work, holding on to a Special Pass makes it difficult to secure employment because employers are less likely to hire workers who are assisting in investigations.
Many migrant workers are their families’ sole breadwinners. The long months without income take a harsh toll—not only financially. Accused workers suffer the guilt and helplessness of being unable to provide for their families’ needs. Trying to spare their loved ones their burdens, many never tell their families of their ordeal.
These are not short-term crises. A migrant worker undergoing investigation has their life put on hold for however long the case takes: months, or even years. The ever-elastic timeframe, uncertainty, and powerlessness, stretch many workers beyond their endurance. Facing charges, they become torn between fighting for justice for themselves, and pleading guilty so that they can walk away and resume earning for their families. Many eventually conclude they have no real choice but to plead guilty even if they believe themselves innocent.
All these difficulties are on top of the inherent stress of investigation and prosecution. Caught in a foreign legal machinery, migrant workers seldom know their rights, or what help is available. Few migrant workers have Singaporean family or friends able to post bail for them. Locked in remand, accessing help is even harder.
In workers’ experience, investigating and prosecuting authorities seldom offer such information and resources. For every worker HOME reaches, there are many more languishing and lost, navigating the criminal justice system with piecemeal knowledge.
For migrant workers who do not speak Singapore’s official languages, interpretation can be patchy: during investigations, and even in court. When they are not offered adequate interpretation in their native language during investigation interviews, very few workers assert their rights in this regard. Standing their ground when an authority figure instructs otherwise may not even cross their mind; or is simply too daunting.
Like any of us, some migrant workers make mistakes. The criminal justice system calibrates punishment according to the system’s substantive findings. But the system itself should not become an additional, even harsher punishment exacted on those being processed through its machinery. The criminal justice ecosystem must ensure that socioeconomically vulnerable groups, particularly low-wage migrant workers, have a fair chance, and a dignified real choice, to fight for their innocence.