Responding to the COVID-19 crisis in Singapore’s migrant worker dormitories

Abstract

Just as Singapore was entering a nationwide lockdown, a significant uptick in Covid-19 infections reported in two migrant worker dormitories on 5 April 2020 was particularly worrying for the government. On the same day, both dormitories were declared “isolation areas” under the Infectious Diseases Act. The move was opposed by some advocacy groups as discriminatory and risky. Affected workers were anxious about their incomes and fearful about getting infected. Dormitory operators scrambled to react to new instructions. Employers saw their operations grind to a halt and costs stack up as workers were ordered to stay in. Would the outbreak in the dormitories spiral out of control?