召之即來，揮之即去的女傭

Ashopping center in the middle of Singapore. The offer， budget maids- house maids at a bargain price. The women who are coming from the Philippines， Indonesia and Myanmar hope for a better future especially for their families at home. But this has its cost， many agencies take liberties with aspects of employment rights.

Every day women wait at the agency ready to be hired immediately. The pressure is high and the agency wants to make profit as quickly as possible. Those who don’t get hired in a certain period of time will be send back home which is a disaster for the women and their families. If the service of the house maids is unsatisfying they can be replaced free of charge- any time.

The salary offered by the agencies is approximately 300 Euros/412 US-Dollars per month， in many cases the agencies will keep the salary of the house maids for half a year. The agency’s response to the question why so is simply the fact that this is the payment for commission. This means that the house maid has to pay a loan to the agency in the first place without receiving any payment. The women are at the mercy of the agency.

As soon as potential employers enter the agency a house maid is advertised. She has to stand in front of the interested customer and has to sell herself in a good way. The agency will show the woman’s portfolio with every single detail of personal information such as height， weight， strengths and weaknesses. One house maid （she wants to stay anonymous） remembers past working experiences. She had to get up at 5 a.m. in the morning， prepare breakfast， get the kids ready for school， take them to school， clean the house， prepare lunch， go to sleep at around 12 p.m. There are no fixed working times and no law which protects their rights.

Having a house maid is very common in Singapore， somehow a strange thought if you employ have one. They get a small room beneath the kitchen usually not more than 12sqm. But many don’t mind sleeping in the nursery or living room. Nevertheless an unfamiliar thought having a stranger sleeping so close to your children.

Singapore is an international city belonging to one of the future markets in Asia because Singapore’s business freedom score is exceptionally high and least corrupt. No wonder that a high amount of foreign families live there which are dependent on house maids and their service.

Particularly alarming was the fact that rarely somebody talked about their treatment whether being employed in an Asian or western family， this is an serious issue. One was asked to work from dawn （before prayer time） to 2am， leaving her only three hours of sleep with only a slice of bread to eat the whole day. And that was for seven days a week， no day off and no salary for three months. Another house maid was almost beaten to death by her “madam” because she took a bath once a week！ The madam thought that the maid was seducing her husband. The maid jumped off a three-story villa to escape death from the hands of her madam.

One girl was drugged and sexually abused by her employer. She was even “shared” with the employer’s friends. This continued for more than six months until she found a way to escape from the house. Fortunately more and more centers for abused women are opening in Singapore offering help and support 24/7.

新加坡作為一座經濟自由的國際化都市吸引了很多外籍人士，他們的生活多依賴于那些想要為家人提高生活水平的東南亞婦女。然而作為女傭，她們卻總是被召之即來揮之即去的那一群人。首先勞務機構會以傭金的名義持有女傭們的薪水不發，讓她們任其擺布；其次對于女傭的挑選嚴格，工作時間長且不固定，待遇低下，隨時會因雇主不滿意而被遣送回國；再次由于女傭們對于自己的境況常常緘口不言，因而會遭受到虐待甚至性侵。好在新加坡出現了越來越多的針對受虐婦女的幫助中心，并為其提供24小時的幫助和支持。