TWC2 responds to Singapore’s classification as Tier 1 in the TIP report

Written on 14 October 2022.

US Department of State, in its 2022 Trafficking in Person Report, has classified Singapore as Tier 1 and the government as meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Responding to this report, TWC2 pointed out that even as Singapore has protections against human trafficking, its own law is more limited than the UN TIP protocol. In contrast to the UN Protocol which focuses on empowering victims of trafficking by providing them with “employment, educational and training opportunities”, the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act’s emphasis is on the “prosecution of traffickers, and it is weak in its provisions for the protection and support for victims of trafficking… Its protective measures tend to emphasise protection for individuals trafficked into sexual exploitation, rather than other forms of labour exploitation.” This overlooking of trafficking and exploitative conditions faced by migrant workers is pervasive. Even the TIP Report highlights that during the pandemic, the government “implemented regulations that allowed employers to limit the movement of migrant workers and kept these regulations in place longer than restrictions on the general public, thereby possibly increasing forced labour risks for migrant workers”.

The case of a manager of a club who was convicted in February 2022 by the government for trafficking highlighted some of the problems in countering trafficking in Singapore. It showed that there can be a fine line between what people recognised to have been trafficked may face and what “ordinary” migrant workers in the worst employment situations may experience. TWC2 reiterated its view that a significant improvement in the conditions of employment of migrant workers would help to make trafficking cases more visible and thus assist in combatting human trafficking.