Going the Extra Mile to Repatriate Injured, Sick Foreign Workers

S'pore Red Cross scheme sends volunteers to accompany them to ensure they arrive safely

- Christine Tan

A maid who injured her spine after falling three storeys from her employer's apartment in 2019 had to be sent home.

But she could not walk, much less board a plane alone.

Her journey would have been fraught with uncertainty had it not been for volunteers and staff from the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) who accompanied her to her village in Lombok, Indonesia.

They wheeled her onto the plane, helped her relieve herself when she could not stand, and made the six-hour journey by plane and ambulance to take her home.

This was one of the cases handled by SRC's Last Mile Assistance Programme, which sends volunteers in pairs to accompany injured or sick foreign workers who have to be repatriated to their home countries.

The programme started in 2019, and since then has helped 12 maids and migrant workers return to countries including India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

This is the first time SRC is speaking to the media about the programme.

Its associate director for global engagement Rebekah Lim said the number of cases it handles annually has increased from about two in 2019 to five in 2024.

Interestingly, the programme was born after an SRC intern, Ms Lim En Qi, now 27, identified a gap in the repatriation process of such workers in 2018.

She told The Sunday Times that she spoke to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) and the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), to learn about their work as SRC wanted to expand its range of beneficiaries to include migrant workers in Singapore.

"We realised the NGOs assisting migrant workers were largely focused on providing assistance locally. Given their scale, they were unable to extend their assistance beyond Singapore, other than raising funds," she said.