How much of the $3 billion foreign workers’ levies have been used to help such workers?

I refer to the article “Left in the lurch when foreign bosses disappear” (Straits Times, Feb 12).

It states that “In the past 1½ years, there have been at least six cases of non-Singaporean employers absconding without paying their foreign workers, according to the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC).

In each case, more than 20 workers were owed about three to four months’ pay, said MWC chairman Yeo Guat Kwang, who added that the non-governmental organisation noticed the trend only in recent years.

“The non-Singaporean employer has little to lose and runs away when times get difficult… When they return to their home country, it’s out of our jurisdiction,” Mr Yeo said at a Chinese New Year celebration for foreign bus captains at the Woodlands Westlite dormitory yesterday.”

With all the rhetoric practically every year – about the plight of foreign workers – how much of the estimated over $3 billion revenue a year from foreign workers’ levies – have been used to help such workers?

Leong Sze Hian