Data On Foreigners Working Without Valid Employment Passes

5 Ms Elysa Chen asked the Minister for Manpower (a) how many cases of foreigners found working without valid employment passes were reported annually over the last five years; and (b) what proportion resulted in (i) prosecutions (ii) fines or (iii) repatriations.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, from 2020 to 2024, the annual average of about 450 foreigners were found to be working illegally without valid work passes. On average, 13 foreigners were prosecuted, four were fined and the rest were issued with warnings, as most of the cases involved short duration of illegal employment. These foreigners were also repatriated and debarred from working in Singapore.

Mr Speaker: Ms Elysa Chen.

Ms Elysa Chen (Bishan-Toa Payoh): I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have three follow-up supplementary questions. The first, what measures are being taken to strengthen collaboration with other Government agencies to detect and deter illegal employment more effectively?

The context for the second question, I did have a whistle-blower coming to my meet-the-people session to share that this was happening in illegal wedding photoshoots and others also saying that this is quite prevalent in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry. So, are there any specific sectors or industries where cases of working without valid passes are more prevalent? And how is the Ministry addressing these hotspots?

My last supplementary question, how does the Ministry ensure that enforcement against illegal employment does not inadvertently penalise workers, who have been misled by errant recruiters or employers?

Mr Dinesh Vasu Dash: I thank the Member for her questions. Firstly, we work very closely with the relevant agencies, associations and Ministries as required and really, our our intention is to protect local workers and local employers.

Specific to wedding shoots, we get on average about two cases per year over the last two years, if I take the timeline from about 2021 to about 2023. We have been working with the Visual, Audio, Creative Content Professionals Association (Singapore), or Vicpa, to understand the ground situation and pending tip-offs, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will then conduct investigations and to deal with the complainants as we see necessary and; of course, to the people who are the perpetrators as well.

We are happy to work with any organisation and agency in the interest of our workers and our employers.

To the second question on the services and sectors that are involved, essentially, we see it mainly in the services and construction sector, which usually has a slightly higher number than the rest; and for this, a whole range of legislation has been put in place. For example, errant workers under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act would be fined up to $20,000 or jailed up to two years or both; and for employers this amount is $30,000 and an imprisonment term of about 12 months or both.

But beyond legislation, there are two regimes of inspections: proactive inspections – primarily dealing with areas at which we think are more highly prevalent – and reactive inspections that results from either whistle-blower cases, as exactly as the Member has pointed out, or through the MOM channels, either through our websites or call centres and services centre. So, when we get such feedback, we then do the necessary investigations and we do the necessary actions that are required.

To the third question, it is indeed a very important one, because there are many who may be unfortunately misled and it is not going to be very helpful for us to use very heavy mechanisms. And and that is why, in my reply, you will realise that the bulk of the perpetrators in this case, depending on the severity of their of their offence, was indeed warned. We keep that as the main basis after proper investigations are being taken. I hope that helps.