1,600 worker dorms to come under single law next year in move to contain disease outbreaks

The Foreign Employee Dormitories Act currently applies only to larger dorms, but will be extended to cover smaller dormitories with seven beds or more. - ST

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) About 1,600 dormitories that can house about 440,000 migrant workers will be regulated under a single law from April 1 next year, to help the authorities contain disease outbreaks more quickly and potentially improve living standards within such facilities.

The Foreign Employee Dormitories Act (Feda) will be extended to cover smaller dormitories with seven beds or more. It currently applies only to 53 larger dorms that accommodate 1,000 or more workers - these dorms have 256,000 beds in all.