Opening Remarks at International Migrants Day 2025

Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng, Downtown East, D'Marquee

Distinguished guests

Our migrant friends

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Good afternoon! It gives me great pleasure to be here with everyone to celebrate International Migrants Day 2025.

Appreciating our migrant community

2. This year’s, particularly this year as we celebrate SG60, our International Migrants Day is one of the several celebrations we have put together across the island as part of this celebration. It is a special time for us to recognise and appreciate the contributions of our migrant community, and the important role they play in our country’s development and success.

3. Thank you to all our migrant workers. We are deeply, deeply grateful for your hard work. You build the foundations of where we live, work and play and you keep our towns running every day. For our migrant domestic workers, your dedication and commitment to caring for the young and elderly in our homes are invaluable to many families in Singapore. On behalf of all Singaporeans, thank you very much.

Enabling a resilient ecosystem to support MWs well-being

4. We remain steadfast in caring for our migrant workers’ well-being throughout their stay in Singapore. We have made significant progress in the areas of housing, healthcare and recreation since we launched the multi-year roadmap in 2021. This is not just the efforts of the Government alone, but a collective partnership with many stakeholders, including many of those not just here within this hall, but outside as well. Together with you, we have built a strong support ecosystem, and we will continue to work with you to strengthen it and to give you, our migrant community the care and support that you deserve.

Opening of Tukang Dormitory

5. I am delighted to share that the first Government built-and-owned dormitory at NESST Tukang has welcomed its first batch of residents last week, ahead of its official opening next month. Over a single weekend, almost 400 residents moved in. The onboarding went smoothly and warmly, just as we had hoped. Here's a video showing the residents’ experience at the dormitory.

6.  Tukang was designed through close collaboration with employers, dormitory operators, employers and most importantly, you, our migrant workers themselves. Features such as better room ventilation, special privacy corners for residents to call home and 24/7 food access came directly from what workers told us they valued. Tukang dormitory sets a new benchmark for safety, comfort and dignity. And we hope this will inspire the wider industry to improve standards, so that more workers can benefit in the years ahead.

Review of Primary Care Plan

7. On the healthcare front, we have made significant progress with our primary healthcare system. Since 2022, the Primary Care Plan, or PCP, enables migrant workers to access affordable primary care services near their dormitories. The PCP has been well-received by our migrant workers. 9 in 10 of our migrant workers shared that clinic consultations are affordable and accessible for them.

8. Over the past year, we have spoken to several stakeholders for their views on how we can improve the PCP. Based on the feedback received, we will be making several enhancements to the PCP. 

9. First, we will bring care closer to where our migrant workers live and increase the number of clinics, such that the majority of workers have a clinic within 2 km from where they stay. This means shorter travel times, quicker access to help when they are unwell, and less disruption to their work and rest routines. Second, we want to maintain the PCP as a cost-effective system and administratively simple for our employers. MOM will develop a centralised online portal to help employers enrol their workers onto the PCP more seamlessly. Today, PCP clinics are spread out across six geographical zones. By April 2027, we will consolidate them into four larger zones. With fewer but larger zones, the Anchor Operators can serve a bigger pool of workers, achieve better economies of scale and in turn keep the annual capitation rates reasonable for our employers. This reduction in zones will not compromise our workers’ accessibility to care. In fact, it will be a win-win for our workers, employers and anchor operators. We are increasing the supply of clinics closer to where our workers live, providing better access while keeping costs manageable for our employer.

10. These changes will be implemented when new PCP anchor operators are appointed from April 2027. I would like to thank our current anchor operators for their commitment and support in looking after our migrant workers over the past few years. Building on these efforts, the enhancements will also improve the resilience of our healthcare system, reducing the strain on our public healthcare resources and ensure that we are better prepared for future health crises.

New RC operators

11. Next, let me talk about the social support for our migrant workers. Last year, I shared plans to appoint new operators for Kaki Bukit and Woodlands Recreation Centres. This is part of our efforts to improve the diversity and quality of offerings to support the social and recreational needs of migrant workers.

12. We have since appointed a consortium headed by Hope Initiative Alliance, and the Dormitory Association of Singapore, to commence operations at Kaki Bukit and Woodlands recreation centres respectively in the coming months. Our migrant workers can look forward to refreshed facilities and more diverse initiatives, from sports to entertainment and cultural performances as well as training programmes such as English and digital literacy classes.

Merger of Migrant Worker Volunteer Programmes

13. Beyond NGOs and community partners, we recognise the important role migrant workers play in supporting their community. Many of our workers are already volunteering through programmes like MOM’s Friends of ACE (FACE) volunteers and as ambassadors at the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC). They engage with workers, provide feedback on various issues that workers face and collaborate with partners to enhance social support for their community.  

14. Today, we are happy to have about 2,000 migrant workers serving as FACE volunteers and MWC ambassadors. To strengthen this support network, we will be merging the two group of volunteers under one unified programme next year. This will enable MOM and MWC to manage and deploy our migrant worker volunteers more effectively, and to expand our outreach to more workers across the community.

15. Under this new programme, we will identify a group of “Star Ambassadors” with specialised roles to serve as role models within their communities. For example, some will take on leadership roles as representatives in the dormitories to provide support to their fellow resident workers. Others with the interest can assist our community partners to take charge of organising recreation and sporting activities in the recreation centres. I look forward to more migrant workers joining this meaningful programme and contributing based on your personal interests and abilities.

Closing

16. The International Migrants’ Day is our collective celebration. It is also our commitment and a demonstration of our appreciation of our migrant community’s contributions to Singapore’s development. It is also a reminder that all of us have a part to play in improving the well-being of our migrant community.

17. I would like to thank the following partners who have made today’s event possible:

• Migrant Workers’ Centre
• Centre for Domestic Employees
• Sian Chay Medical Institution
• As well as embassies, NGOs, community and corporate partners

18. I hope everyone will enjoy the rest of today participating in the full line-up of activities curated by these partners.

19. On behalf of everyone in the government and Ministry of Manpower, I wish all of you a Happy International Migrants Day! Thank you very much.

----------