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NGOs should help to quell violence among workers

It is startling and sad to read that guest workers in Singapore are increasingly exhibiting violent behaviour.

It is startling and sad to read that guest workers in Singapore are increasingly exhibiting violent behaviour.

Besides the “14 Bangladeshi workers charged with rioting at dormitory” (March 29), 40 foreign workers were involved in a clash last March near Farrer Park MRT Station. And there was the Little India riot in December.

Most of the million-plus guest workers are law-abiding. We cannot, though, condone even 1 per cent of these workers behaving violently. This must be contained swiftly before more are emboldened to resort to violence.

Besides government intervention and enforcement as an approach to this problem, non-government organisations should be roped in to fill a potential gap.

They should start outreach and education programmes targeting topics relating to workers’ rights, socio-cultural norms in Singapore, negotiation and conflict resolution and the rule of law.

The NGOs should, besides advocating for migrant worker rights, work in partnership with the Government to start meaningful training programmes in order to quell violent behaviour among the workers.

Campaigns should be run jointly with various government agencies and dormitory owners to ensure that the anti-violence message reaches every worker before the situation gets out of hand.

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