Singapore to ease virus curbs for migrant workers

Singaporewill from next week begin easing movement restrictions onmigrantworkersliving in dormitories, authorities said Thursday, over a year after they were implemented to curb coronavirus outbreaks.

The vast, self-contained dormitory complexes are home to more than 200,000 foreignworkers, mainly from South Asia, who work in jobs like construction and maintenance.

Virusoutbreaks tore through the sites in the early stages of the pandemic, shining a harsh spotlight on the prosperous city-state's treatment of the low-paid migrants.

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Authorities imposed movementcurbsin April last year, and since then theworkershave for the most part only been allowed to travel between their dorms and places of work.

Under a pilot programme to launch Monday, up to 500 vaccinatedworkerswill be allowed to visit selected locations for six hours each week, the labour ministry said.

They will need to take avirustest before the visit, and three days afterwards, with the scheme to be evaluated after a month, it said.

The decision was taken after vaccination rates amongworkersliving in dorms reached over 90 percent, the ministry said.

But Alex Au, vice president ofmigrantrights group TransientWorkersCount Too, criticised the plan as not going far enough, as so fewworkerswill be able to participate.

"It's a drop in the ocean," he told AFP."It is way too timid, it's actually going to cause more frustration."

The majority ofSingapore'svirusinfections have been amongmigrantworkers.

But the city-state has largely been successful at keeping its outbreak in check, reporting only about 70,000 infections and 55 deaths.

There has been an uptick in recent weeks driven by the more contagious Delta variant, but most infections have been outside the dorms.