Dorm manager admits to locking 20 foreign workers in 1 room after contact with Covid-19 patient

Safe distancing may be the name of the game now, but one dormitory in Tuas took it to the extreme when they locked 20 workers up to isolate them.

The men had been in contact with a Covid-19 patient and were locked up to "play it safe", the dormitory manager explained yesterday (April 21) after the move triggered widespread backlash, Today reported.

The alarm was first raised by advocacy group Transient Workers Count 2 (TWC2) in a series of Facebook posts yesterday afternoon which alleged that 21 workers had been locked in a room together since Monday morning.

The men had been confined to their room in the dormitory managed by Joylicious after another worker from the same room developed a fever and reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.

TWC2 had received a "distress call" from the workers, who also sent them footage of the locked door and the crowded conditions in the room.

The door was locked from the outside, forcing workers to call the facility's security guards for help if they needed to visit the toilet. However, the guards could take up to 30 minutes to respond, TWC2 said.

Condemning the move, TWC2 wrote: "This is an unacceptable and dangerous way to do things. What if a fire breaks out in the block?"

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Speaking to Today, the manager of the dormitory, identified only as Mr Thng, clarified that there were 20 men in the room, not 21, and claimed that they had been confined for "less than 24 hours" as the management prepared a larger room with an attached toilet for them.

"We have no choice but to play it safe. I have 800 workers to take care of here, and they have 800 plus families to answer to. (We can't allow) one black sheep to cause this whole thing (to spin out of control)," Thng, 35, said.

Reena Wong, 51, the design director at the workers' employer V Spec Engineering & Supplies, echoed Thng's sentiments, saying: "For the sake of every man at the dorm, we as an employer told them not to go around. For goodness' sake, it is only temporary."

The workers had not been issued any quarantine orders at the time of confinement, said Wong.

The men were reportedly locked up in the new room as well, TWC2 said in another post, although both Wong and Thng denied this.

Police eventually arrived on the scene and the door was opened, a third post by TWC2 confirmed at 8.25pm yesterday.

While the Joylicious dorm has not been gazetted as an isolation area by the government, it is "effectively on lockdown" along with all other dormitories housing migrant workers, according to Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo's remarks at a press conference on April 14.

The workers are allowed to leave their rooms, but have to stay within the dormitory's premises and observe safe distancing measures.

Workers who test positive for Covid-19 as well as their close contacts will be isolated to prevent clusters from forming, Teo said.

AsiaOne has reached out to MOM for comment.

For the latest updates on the coronavirus, visit here.

kimberlylim@asiaone.com