So we finished Migrant Dreams and The Human Trade and thought we’d hibernate for a bit. Rest. Recharge. Get a full night’s sleep. But sleep’s been tough. Post-production stress, maybe. The relentless pace of the past few months finally catching up on us. But it’s not just the work. It’s the fact that the problems we’ve been investigating seem so immense. So… so insurmountable. On the two days the films finally went to air, we felt as if we had very little to celebrate.
And then you started emailing. You wrote to express your outrage at what you saw. You asked us how you could help. You posted the videos on your blogs, your Facebook pages. Told people to watch. You – friends, acquaintances, former classmates, complete strangers from halfway across the world. Thank-you. It’s good to know so many people care. Maybe there is hope yet.
A few of you wrote asking for more information. I thought I’d share a few links:
Transient Workers Count Too
The wonderful people behind the free meal programme in Cuff Road also run a host of other projects.
Humanitarian Organisation For Migration Economics (HOME)
Runs a legal aid programme and shelters for abused workers in Singapore.
Tenaganita
Malaysia’s leading migrant rights organisation.
Videos by Wild Poppies
By turns shocking and heartbreaking, these videos by a volunteer/activist (who prefers only to be known as “Wild Poppies”) were shot way before the mainstream press got wind of the magnitude of the problems facing migrant workers in Singapore.
Project Humane Transport
Cargo trucks are for cargo. Most of us wouldn’t voluntarily ride on the back of one, so why should anyone expect the tens of thousands of migrant labourers in Singapore to be transported this way? Support the call for change. No one deserves to die just to help his employer save a bit of money.
