SINGAPORE — In what could be among the worst breaches of the minimum age requirement for foreign domestic workers here, two employment agencies were hauled to court on Thursday (May 23) for deploying two 13-year-old girls from Myanmar.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) charged Casa Employment Specialist as well as Vista Employment Services' sole proprietor Khor Siew Tiang for failing to ensure that the foreign domestic workers brought into Singapore met the minimum age requirement of 23, it said in a press release. They had breached employment agency licence conditions in doing so.

This is the first time the MOM has charged anyone for the offence. In 2005, it raised the minimum age for foreign domestic workers from 18 to 23.

Casa and Khor committed the alleged offences in June and July last year.

If convicted under the Employment Agencies Act, Casa could be fined up to S$5,000 while Khor, a 35-year-old Singapore permanent resident, could be fined up to S$5,000 and jailed up to six months. Their cases will be heard again on June 14.

The ministry is suspending Khor's licence from Friday and Casa's licence from June 7.

On top of court-imposed penalties, the ministry may revoke their employment agency licences and forfeit their security deposits.

It was during an interview at the MOM Services Centre that the two girls disclosed their real ages to its officers, the ministry said. Their applications to work here were revoked, and MOM directed Khor and Casa to send them back to Myanmar.

The ministry also informed the Myanmar Embassy of the matter, and said that both girls have been barred from seeking work in Singapore.

Employment agencies are regularly reminded by the MOM to verify the age of foreign domestic workers, the ministry said. The workers are notified of Singapore's entry requirements before arriving here, it added.

Upon arrival, all first-time foreign domestic workers are required to attend a mandatory "settling in" programme and are informed of the consequences if found to be underage — they would be sent back to their home country and barred permanently from working in Singapore.

However, if they confess that they are underage, MOM will allow them to work here after they turn 23.

Between 2015 and 2017, the MOM took action against 98 employment agencies for failing to ensure that the foreign domestic workers they deploy met the age requirement. During that period, the ministry turned away 449 of these workers who were underage.

It could not confirm the youngest case of an underage foreign domestic worker that it has encountered.

Urging employers to be vigilant when hiring domestic helpers and to check these workers' age or other credentials, the ministry said that foreign domestic workers need to have the maturity and ability to cope with the work and stress here, or they may not be able to care for their young or old charges.

There have been tragedies involving such underage workers in recent years, although no reported case has involved those as young as 13.

In June last year, Myanmar national Zin Mar Oo fell to her death at the Interlace condominium along Alexandra Road. Her father said that she was only 20.

In 2014, Indonesian helper Dewi Sukowati, who was 18, killed her employer after being hit with a tray and threatened with a pay cut. She was sentenced to 18 years' jail.

And in 2010, Indonesian foreign domestic worker Nurhayati, who was 16 and goes by one name, had to look after her employer's mentally and physically disabled child. She pushed the 12-year-old girl off from the 16th floor, and was sentenced to 20 years' jail for culpable homicide.

Migrant workers' advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too, in a survey done in 2016, found that 26 out of 232 women polled — or 11 per cent — were underage on arrival in Singapore. They were from Myanmar and Indonesia.

The MOM advises employers that if they suspect a recommended worker to be underage, they should not engage the agency's services and report it to the ministry.