FOR the last month, Bangladeshi Amol Ban Dan, a marine worker, has been sitting in his Jurong dorm, waiting for work.
The 30-year-old is joined by 138 foreign nationals who spend their days talking and sleeping in the Kian Teck Road building instead of repairing ships.
They are victims of the recent economic slowdown, which has hit the offshore and marine sector especially hard.
Mr Amol, who sold land and borrowed money to pay for his passage here, said that he 'wants to work'. It was a familiar refrain in the dorm when The Straits Times visited yesterday.
The industry is littered with tales of waning demand and cancelled contracts. It employed almost 60,000 workers in 2007, when output was $13 billion. But many ship building and ship repair companies have been in the news lately for withholding wages from foreign workers, citing a lack of work.
For the full story, read Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
