Migrant groups celebrate International Domestic Workers' Day

SINGAPORE - Migrant worker group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) celebrated International Domestic Workers' Day with an event on Sunday for maids here.

The afternoon of performances, games and singing was organised together with the Indonesian Family Network and Filipino Family Network at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge, and attended by some 150 maids. There were also booths providing information on legal issues and breast cancer.

"All too many employers and employment agents subject domestic workers to verbal and psychological abuse to instill fear in them and to make them subservient. They also do so because of prejudices," said TWC2 president Russell Heng. "We all have a responsibility to help realise domestic workers' rights."

The International Domestic Workers' Day is June 16. It commemorates the passing of a convention and set of recommendations for the rights of domestic workers by the International Labour Organisation in 2011.

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