The Ministry of Manpower is investigating a local employment agency who appears to have brought into Singapore underage maids-for-hire from Myanmar, Mothership.sg has learned.

The SLF Green Maid Agency, which was featured in a locally-produced documentary called "Maid in Singapore" was shown to supposedly have brought in and hawked underage girls for hire as domestic workers in Singapore.

The minimum legal age for a person to work as a domestic helper in Singapore is 23.

Responding to queries from Mothership.sg about the film, the MOM says it "takes a very serious view" on the issue of underage foreign domestic workers.

The documentary, produced by local filmmakers Lynn Lee and James Leong, was aired on Al-Jazeera's 101 East programme last week. It featured several girls who were underage, but whose Myanmar agents bribed officials to change their birth dates in their passports and identity documentation to hoodwink Singapore authorities.

In some cases, local agents appeared to be in cahoots with their Myanmar counterparts.

At SLF Green Maid Agency, a girl was featured to be introduced as "fresh", and when asked how old she was, she said she was 20.

This is the one MOM says it is investigating.

"The age requirement was put in place to ensure that the FDWs who come to Singapore to work are mature and responsible, able to take care of themselves and adapt to a foreign working environment," a spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement.

Here's how they work to enforce the minimum age rule:

1. Employment agencies

Agencies are required, according to the terms of their licences, to check and make sure all who are brought in meet legal requirements, one of which is minimum age.

To do this, they must conduct interviews, check and verify their birth and educational certificates against their passports to ensure that they are of age. MOM also checks on agencies regularly to make sure they are meeting these conditions.

Those who flout the rules are fined up to $5,000 or are jailed up to 6 months.

2. Interviewing young-looking foreign domestic workers

MOM says they also selectively interview helpers who look relatively young to verify their application details, including their age, at the MOM Services Centre.

If an underage helper is found, the ministry will circle back to their respective employment agency, investigate them and make them bear the costs of sending her back to her home country.

The ministry also says it looks into cases flagged by non-governmental organisations like HOME.

3. Foreign Domestic Worker Settling-In Programme

The MOM also says they conduct a mandatory programme for all new foreign domestic helpers, which educates them on the minimum age of 23.

The ministry says they will not penalise anyone who comes forward to declare that they are underage, while assuring that they will not be barred from working here when they become old enough to do so.

MOM also urges employers who discover their helpers are below the age of 23 to make a report with the ministry immediately.

That said, they also stressed that this issue needs to be tackled at its source.

You can read our first story on the documentary in more detail here.

Related article:

Abuse, exploitation of illegal domestic helpers from Myanmar exposed in S’pore documentary

Top image: screenshot from documentary

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