The heart-rending scene could easily be from a Myanmar tearjerker movie but it was the first thing we saw recently upon entering the dilapidated house of Daw San San Aye, 45, in remote Alalkhone village in Ngaputaw township, Ayeyarwady Region.





Daw San San Aye was feeding her 24-year-old daughter, Ma Thet Khaing Soe, who has been in a coma for months since she was suddenly sent to hospital in Singapore by her employer.

What happened to her is a mystery, and it is difficult for the family to seek help because Ma Thet Khaing Soe was an illegal worker in the city state, where the Myanmar government has banned sending domestic help. Migrant activists say the ban leaves the maids unprotected and easily exploited.

For four months, Daw San San Aye has been looking after her daughter, who apparently cannot feel anything. Her legs shake but her hands are lifeless; her eyes are unresponsive and remain open day and night.

“I am often jolted from sleep in the middle of the night. I get up to check if my daughter is breathing or not. I am so scared,” the mother said.

Road to ruin

Alalkhone village is eight hours by bus, motorcycle and boat from Yangon. There is no electricity. Villagers live on rice cultivation, which can only be done during the rainy season as there is no irrigation.





Ma Thet Khaing Soe’s family relies on the earnings of the father for their daily survival. The eldest of four children, she decided to help the family by working at a garment factory in Yangon.

But life was still tough and Ma Thet Khaing Soe had big dreams. She was determined to improve the family house; she wanted her siblings to finish school; she wanted her mother and father to operate a food shop so their daily needs could be met.

The spunky, winsome village lass, who only finished elementary school, finally saw a chance to make her dreams come true by working as a maid in Singapore.

She heard about the government ban and the horror stories about maids being abused by their employers in the city state. Still she took a gamble.

Ma Thet Khaing Soe flew to Singapore last May with the help of the same broker who smuggled her cousin to the city state. She agreed to the broker’s terms of the first six months of her salary as the fee.

Domestic workers - 50,000 - The estimated number of Myanmar maids working illegally in Singapore.

“We talked once on the phone after she got to Singapore. She told us her job was OK,” said Daw San San Aye.

But, she found out later that Ma Thet Khaing Soe had told her cousin about the hardships she faced, including not being fed well by her employer and taking care of seven dogs.

Later on, Ma Thet Khaing Soe called her cousin to ask her advice about how to go back home, as her working conditions were bad.

Ma Hla Hla Win (not her real name), who also works in Singapore, was among those who visited Ma Thet Khaing Soe while she was unconscious in the hospital in the city state in July.

Ma Hla Hla Win said she found out that Ma Thet Khaing Soe had been abandoned by her employer.

Ma Thet Khaing Soe was treated at the hospital for one and a half months with the help of a migrant rights organisation, Christian charity and other donors, according to Ma Hla Hla Win.

Daw San San Aye said the broker had told her in July that her daughter was just suffering an ordinary illness. It was only through social media that she learned the real condition of Ma Thet Khaing Soe. “I went crazy when I learned about the real situation,” she said.

In August last year, Ma Thet Khaing Soe was returned to Myanmar in a coma. She was treated for two months at Yangon General Hospital, but her condition did not improve.

In November, the family brought her back to the village as no one could take care of her at the hospital and hiring a caregiver was beyond their means.

‘We can’t send her to a clinic as we have no money. I really hope she will just wake up one day.’ - Daw San San Aye, Htet Kaing Soe’s mother

Groups criticise ban

Migrant rights activists and workers feel that the government ban on sending maids to Singapore does not achieve its purpose and only results in the smuggling of domestic workers to the island, which exposes them to greater risk.

The government banned the sending of workers in Singapore in March 2014 amid disturbing reports of abuses and labour rights violations.

But an estimated 50,000 Myanmar maids are still working on the island, through the help of dishonest brokers and unlicensed agencies, according to the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) in Singapore and the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation.

Many of the maids are 14 to 20 years old, a violation of Singaporean law, which has a minimum age of 23 for foreign workers.

But the lure of working as a maid in Singapore is powerful, as they are paid up to S$450 (K510,000/US$334) per month, way beyond what they can earn in this country.

There are an estimated 240,000 foreign maids in Singapore. Among them, Myanmar maids are believed to be the most abused and exploited, since they are sent there illegally and do not have the necessary training and skills for household work, according to migrant rights activists.

Ma Hla Hla Win recalled that there was another Myanmar maid in the house where she was working who did not know how to iron clothes.

She said that other foreign maids, such as from the Philippines and Indonesia, are well-paid in Singapore as they are sent legally, have been well-trained, and have the full protection and support of their governments.

Ma Kitty Aye Mar Mar, a volunteer at HOME, said communication problems also led some employers to lose patience and beat Myanmar maids. She said that Myanmar maids have no access to language training.

Some Myanmar maids have been threatened by their agencies or brokers not to leave abusive employers.

“The maid ban exposes women working abroad to more trouble,” said Jackie Pollock, chief technical adviser for migration projects at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Myanmar.

Myanmar women who want jobs as maids are also charged exorbitant brokers fees because of the ban.

They have difficulty finding help and protection when they face problems, she said.

Pollock said the ILO is urging the government to lift the ban on sending domestic workers abroad so that the workers can be protected more effectively.

“If they sign a labour contract with the Singapore government, maids can have access to legal protections,” HOME volunteer Kitty Aye Mar Mar said.

The federation urged the Myanmar government to allow licensed overseas employment agencies to send domestic workers to Singapore.

U Myo Aung, permanent secretary of the Labour Ministry, said his office is discussing with employment agencies in Singapore how to protect Myanmar maids and ensure fair wages so that the ban can be lifted.

“Sending maids is not like sending other workers because each maid goes to a different employer,” U Myo Aung said.

If the discussions are successful, the Labour Ministry will likely lift the ban and sign a memorandum of understanding with Singapore on labour export.

A mother’s torment

Daw San San Aye despairs yet holds on to hope that one day Ma Thet Khaing Soe will wake up from her coma.

“We can’t send her to a clinic as we have no money. I can just hope that she would wake up one day,” she said.

Her family has gone into debt just to come up with the K400,000 they need each month to buy a special milk powder that her daughter needs.

Daw San San Aye said that she can only be thankful that her daughter has come back alive from Singapore as some Myanmar maids have returned from the island in wooden boxes or cremation urns.

“I am thankful I can still take care of my daughter. I will look after her like when she was a baby and hope that she wakes up one day. I will not expect her to work again if she wakes up. I just want to hear her jolly voice and have her keep me company in our house,” she said.