Indians in Singapore return home as businesses cut down workforce amid pandemic: Envoy

Following the impact of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, more and more Indian workers are reportedly returning home as Singapore business cut down on workforce. While speaking to PTI, the Indian High Commissioner P Kumaran informed that on an average, around 100 Indian nations in Singapore continue to register daily with the High Commission for flights back home. More than 11,000 have already registered, said Kumaran. 

As formal fights between Singapore and India have not been resumed, special flights, arranged as part of ongoing Vande Bharat Mission, have been meeting the high demand for some destinations to help Indian nationals return home as they have either lost their jobs or going back home for medical treatment or family emergencies. Kumaran said that the high commission will continue to work to ensure enough repartition flights. So far, the officials have repatriated over 17,000 Indian nationals by arranging 120 special flights from Singapore to India. 

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The commissioner went on to list out his priorities in working on the India-Singapore relations during his tenure. Kumaran emphasised on further intensifying the political engagement, focus on increasing trade and investment flows and also technology collaborations in the space of fintech and startups. He also said that the officials have planned an Indian-ASEAN hackathon later this year, as part of similar hackathons done between India and Singapore in the past. 

The envoy added, "We are also working further on other collaboration opportunities such enabling digital payments in Singapore through Indian domestic RuPay cards, working together to develop a Global Stack, on the lines of India Stack, and for making our MSME platforms interoperable”. 

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COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore 

Coming back to Singapore’s COVID-19 situation, recent reports suggested that around 13,000 foreign workers were not allowed to resume work after they missed their deadline to undergo the mandatory testing, which is also known as Rostered Routine Testing. Many of these workers belong to India and as a measure to ensure safety at the workplace, workers are required to go through the RRT every 14 days. 

The Ministry of Manpower, Economic Development Board, Building and Construction Authority, and Health Promotion Board have been encouraging the employers since August to undergo RRT. Reports by PTI suggest that once the workers complete their RRT, their access code will turn ‘green' and they will be allowed to return to work. According to the tally by John Hopkins University, Singapore has recorded a total number of 57,166 cases with 27 casualties. 

(With inputs from PTI) 

(Image: AP) 

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