Debated in Parliament on 18 Feb 2019.
Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the employment screening process for foreigners applying for a work permit; and (b) in the past three years, how many applicants have been rejected because of their unsatisfactory records.
Mr Speaker, apart from assessing work permit applications on whether they meet our Work Pass rules such as dependency ratio and source, the applicant will also be screened for any security antecedents and adverse records. This screening of applicants helps to minimise incidence where undesirable persons are inadvertently allowed to work in Singapore. Between 2016 and 2018, around 8,400 applicants were rejected per year, on average, as a result of this screening.
I have one supplementary question. Many residents expressed concern about their maids borrowing money from unlicensed moneylenders and some have been sent back. So, they are asking when these maids apply to come back to Singapore to work, do we issue them work permits or is it on the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) list that these maids are not allowed to come back?
Generally, as part of policy, as foreigners who have infringed MOM's regulations, they will have their adverse record marked. For this case, if the maids' employers want to appeal, they can certainly appeal, but I am not sure if the Member is asking for them to return, or she wants them black-listed.
Not to return.
Not to return. So, I suppose the employers also have an option to blacklist them as well for such adverse conduct, for example, that they want MOM to take note of. We will certainly take note and mark it in the list.
Does it mean that the employers have to report to MOM so that next time, the maids would not be allowed to come back because they are involved in unlicensed moneylending? Definitely, for those cases that Police is aware of, the maids should be stopped from coming back automatically, without needing the employers to prompt MOM.
When I talk about adverse conduct, when we talk about moneylending, it applies to unlicensed moneylending. If it is unlicensed, certainly, that is adverse conduct and so, it will go into the record without the need for the employer to report this.
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