Singapore mock riot using South Asian workers draws criticism

SINGAPORE // Singapore has defended the use of South Asian workers in a mock riot which rights groups have criticised as “dehumanising”.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said on Thursday such exercises are regularly conducted in worker dormitories to preserve law and order.

The drill took place in a migrant workers’ dormitory on October 26, less than a year after South Asian workers staged the worst riot in the city-state since the 1960s.

Rights groups have criticised it for “reinforcing stereotypes” and “dehumanising” the workers.

“SPF and SCDF will continue to conduct similar exercises in other foreign worker dormitories around Singapore,” a joint statement said.

National development minister Khaw Boon Wan set off a furore on Tuesday when he posted photographs on Facebook of the anti-riot drill featuring police, civil defence forces and migrant workers playing the role of rioters.

The photographs showed workers standing next to flames and confronting police officers decked in riot gear. The campaign group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics said the exercise reinforced “the stereotype that foreign workers, especially those of South Asian origin, are more prone to to violence and riots”.

But some online commentators defended the minister and the exercise, saying the participation of migrant workers was necessary to ensure the drill was realistic.

A riot by about 400 South Asian workers in Singapore's Little India district on December 8 last year left 39 people, including SPF and SCDF officers, injured and 25 vehicles destroyed.

* Agence France-Presse