MOM Poster is Meant to Educate Foreign Workers

MOM Poster is Meant to Educate Foreign Workers
- The New Paper, 24 March 2009 & The Straits Times Online, 23 March 2009

Please refer to the TNP forum letter, "Poster makes the Home Team look inhumane" (23 Mar 2009) and the Straits Times Online Forum letter, "Poster warning illegal immigrants: Image may give a wrong impression" (17 Mar 2009) by Mr Paul Antony Fernandez.

2.   The poster in question is part of the Ministry of Manpower's ongoing communications efforts to educate foreign workers on their employment rights and responsibilities while working in Singapore. The campaign carries messages on workplace safety, avenues for workers to turn to when they face salary arrears, as well as illegal employment. The posters are available in English, Chinese, Tamil, Thai, and Bengali, so as to reach out to different groups of foreign workers.

3.   The image used in the poster is not to be taken literally. The creative agency behind the campaign used a lorry (which is a common mode of transport for foreign workers) with a rear compartment resembling a prison cell, to remind them that illegal employment carries a prison term.

4.   MOM has run this public education campaign since 2005, and has received positive feedback on it. We thank Mr Fernandez for sharing his views, which will be considered in future public education campaigns.

Poster Makes the Home Team Look Inhumane
- The New Paper, 23 March 2009

This poster (above) displayed at the Little India MRT station caught my attention.

It is a deterrent message against would-be immigration offenders, explaining the consequences and is targeted at foreign workers. However the picture may give the wrong impression of how the Home Team handles such cases. It would appear that suspects are arrested and put in a cage at the back of a lorry.

Tourists also use the MRT and may misinterpret this to mean our Home Team is inhumane and treats suspects like animals. If a police or Immigration and Checkpoints Authority vehicle is shown instead, the Home Team will be seen as having a much more professional image. 

Poster Warning Illegal Immigrants: Image May Give a Wrong Impression
- The Strais Times Online, 17 March 2009

This poster warning against illegal entry of foreigners into Singapore displayed at the train platform at the Little India MRT station is effective in that it is written in a language the workers can understand.

But the visual may create a wrong impression of the manner in which the Home Team handles such law breakers. Tourists who often use the MRT may misinterpret the visual of an illegal immigrant, handcuffed and about to be confined in a cage at the rear of a lorry, as an inhumane act.

A picture of an official vehicle, such as a police or Immigration and Checkpoints Authority van would create a more proper image of the Home Ministry's professionalism, instead of a lorry.