SINGAPORE — Asking "tricky questions", setting a minimum height and weight requirement, and checking if photographs have been doctored are among the strategies maid agencies are using to sieve out underage foreign domestic workers who attempt to gain entry to work in Singapore. 

While the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said it has seen a marked decrease in the number of underage maids detected in the last three years, after initial spikes in 2018 and 2019, it still detected around six underage foreign domestic workers per 10,000 such workers in Singapore from 2018 to 2022. 

This is comparable to the preceding five-year period, it said, leading them to take an average of 11 employment agencies to task every year for such breaches.

While the number of maids working in Singapore who are found to be underage by authorities is relatively low, maid agencies said they encounter such cases "relatively often" at the interview stage, when the applicants are still in their home countries.

And despite their checks, some underage applicants do slip through the cracks. 

Recently, a teenage maid from Myanmar escaped the gallows and was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing her employer’s mother-in-law to death after a bone-age test was conducted and found her to be 17 instead of 23, the minimum age required for a maid to work here.

AGENCIES GOING BEYOND BASIC CHECKS

TODAY spoke to five maid agencies who said on average they reject between one and six out of 100 candidates they interview, after they suspect them of being underage. 

They added that they do basic checks like conducting a video call to verify documents such as identification cards, birth certificates and passport information to ensure everything adds up. 

"We check the helper's height and weight, facial features and maturity in answering all our questions. If they still look very young and immature, we will still skip the helper even if all her documents are in order," said director of Asia Manpower Resources Maids, Mdm Rosmini, who goes by one name.

She added that in the last five years, at least five helpers have been rejected by her agency for being underage.  

She recounted how in one case, a candidate's documents showing her age seemed to be in order but as Mdm Rosmini had her suspicions, she managed to get the teen to confess her real age during the interview after repeated questioning. 

During the interview stage, agencies said they also check on the helper's family members’ ages and educational timeline through school certificates. 

Ms Angie Fam from 1.Alpha Employment Agency said that her agents take these checks "very seriously", which includes questioning the age of the helper’s mother when she gave birth to her, how many years the applicant attended school and how old the applicant was when she graduated from school. 

On average, her agency rejects about one candidate whom they suspect to be underage every year. These are usually transferred maids who were not brought into Singapore by her agency.

Over at BestMatch Employment Agency, agents are trained to look at documents closely for evidence of tampering or the use of Photoshop.

Mr Jeff Long, 36, director of the agency, said that he has encountered five cases of underage maids this year — three from Myanmar and two from Indonesia — who had documents that looked photoshopped and age timelines that did not match up. 

He added that in such cases his agency also ceases ties with agencies overseas if he finds out that they were involved in lying about a candidate's age.

Mdm Rosmini also institutes her own set of requirements for helpers as a way to ensure they are of the minimum age of 23. 

“We set our own requirement; for helpers below 25, their minimum height must be 155cm and minimum weight (should be) 55kg,” she said. “Facial features must be mature, no small chin."

MOST OF THE UNDERAGE MAIDS HAIL FROM MYANMAR: HOME

The Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home), a non-governmental organisation that provides crisis intervention and long-term support for abused and exploited migrant workers, said that it usually finds out that helpers are underage through informal conversations with them. 

These helpers reveal to Home volunteers that their actual birth dates are different from what is listed in their passports and other employment documents. 

"These helpers are told by their agents to perpetuate the falsehood and keep up the lie so they can be deployed for employment," said a Home spokesperson.

She added that many of these helpers hail from Myanmar, although they have seen fewer cases in recent years. Home, however, was unable to provide numbers.

It added that it was likely that many of the underage helpers hail from Myanmar due to an earlier ban on the country sending domestic workers to Singapore, which was lifted in 2019.

"Being underage carries a greater chance of them feeling homesick and feeling mentally distressed, particularly if they have been subject to abusive and exploitative working conditions... as they fear being banned from future employment if they are caught for having falsified documents," the spokesperson said.