Measures to Ensure Steady Supply of Migrant Domestic Workers
Ministry of ManpowerSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns measures to ensure a stable and predictable supply of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) to mitigate rising household costs, as raised by Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong. Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng stated that entry approvals for fully vaccinated MDWs have resumed, with priority given to families with urgent care needs. The Ministry of Manpower is also facilitating a commercial programme by the Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) to safely increase the MDW intake. This scheme will be progressively expanded based on demand to help households access domestic help despite ongoing pandemic challenges. For long-term supply resilience, the Ministry remains committed to diversifying source countries to ensure a more robust and steady MDW pipeline.
Transcript
57 Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong asked the Minister for Manpower what are the measures taken to ensure that there is a stable and predictable supply of migrant domestic workers to ensure that households are not unduly affected by rising costs due to a restrictive supply.
Dr Tan See Leng: MOM recognises that there are still many families waiting for approval for their MDWs to enter Singapore, after the temporary tightening of entry approvals for migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in May 2021.
As the regional COVID-19 situation improves, MOM is able to give more entry approvals and has scheduled the entries postponed in May. From 15 October, we have opened up new applications for the entry of fully vaccinated MDWs, for entry from 1 November onwards. More MDWs will be able to enter Singapore in the coming months if the COVID-19 situation continues to stabilise locally and regionally.
Due to the high demand for entry approvals, we will continue to prioritise families with more urgent care needs. For those employers who are not successful in getting entry approvals within the immediate period, they may wish to access the portal in subsequent weeks for more entry approval slots.
MOM will also continue to facilitate the commercial programme by the Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) (AEA(S)) to bring in more MDWs safely to meet the demand. AEA(S)’ pilot has benefited more than 1,000 families since its introduction. AEA(S) and its partner employment agencies will progressively expand the scheme according to demand.
In the longer term, MOM will continue to diversify the sources of MDWs for better resilience of MDW supply.