Cultural Perspectives:

The United States has been engaged with this issue for more than 30 years now, mainly since the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For the last 20 years, the United States Department of State has issued a yearly report on Trafficked persons and evaluation of governments efforts to tackle the same. In 2020, Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the US was “leading by example”, implementing many policies towards tackling the issue. 2020 was the first time the report placed Singapore as a Tier 1 country, showing its great improvements in tackling the issue, however, continued to highlight the greater need to address the issue.

Additionally, we contacted a fellow volunteer who works with Migrant Workers in Singapore, in hopes to conduct an interview with her to gain more knowledge on the topic. However, she claimed the victims come to Singapore knowing the rules, wages, living and working conditions, etc. After comparing these perspectives, we have found that these rules are not always followed by the agencies and contain loopholes that the Singapore government has now recognised.