Migrants in Singapore: Man makes it his mission to help

After a day's hard work, Omar Faruque Shipon spends time from evening to night raising awareness about coronavirus, which greatly helps his fellow Bangladeshi migrant workers in Singapore.

Shipon, 32, a senior safety coordinator in Singapore's marine sector, translates different news articles on the virus into Bangla, including those published by Singapore's leading English daily -- The Straits Times.

Later, he posts the translated items on his Facebook page -- Singapore-e Amra Probashi Bangladeshi.

Besides, he regularly translates Singapore health ministry's Covid-19 updates into Bangla and uploads those in the page.

This is how he raises awareness about the virus among the Bangladeshi migrants who are unable to read and understand English well and also helps them avoid being influenced by rumours and misinformation.

Until January this year, the page had 12,000-odd followers. Now, the number has increased to nearly 52,000.

Shipon said many started to follow the page because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Talking to The Daily Star via WhatsApp on Monday, the migrant from Chandpur said after Singapore first reported Covid-19 cases in January, various rumours began to run rife among the Bangladeshi migrant community.

At one stage, people in the community started to spread rumors that many Bangladeshi migrants had died, but the media in Singapore tried to hide it.

But the Bangladeshi migrants seemed less careful about the virus's effect and were not avoiding public gatherings.

"So, I thought about doing something and posted an article which describes what the coronavirus is. It got about 1,000 shares within a short time," he said.

Since then, he continued posting credible articles on the Facebook page.

In a report published on Monday, The Straits Times lauded Shipon's inspiring act.

Shipon is one of the several migrant workers who have managed to help his fellows virtually, at a time when their movement has been restricted to limit virus transmission, the report read.

A father of two, Shipon went to Singapore after his honours final-year exams under the National University in 2009.

He said at his workplace, migrant workers like him get lunch breaks for an hour.

"At that time when everyone takes rest, I spend time sorting out main news articles which I could post on my page. After the day's work, I start translating those from 7:00pm to 10:00pm," he added.

Shipon said sometimes he also posts his own articles and awareness video messages.

He said after the "second wave" of coronavirus outbreak hit Singapore in late March, he and many other migrants, who are involved in essential services, were shifted to the government-arranged accommodation from their dormitories.

As a safety coordinator, Shipon has to deal with many workers each day, which gives him the opportunity to know their sufferings.

This prompted him to create the Facebook page. He has been running the page for the last five to six years.

Initially, he would share and post articles that he thought might inspire migrants.

Shipon said as the page got several thousand followers, he started posting articles on migrant workers' successes.

He ended up posting over 140 such articles, many published on national dailies in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, The Straits Times report also has an interview of another Bangladeshi, Fazley Elahi Rubel, 30, who has been in Singapore for 11 years.

According to the report, Rubel started the annual "Migrant Cultural Show" in 2018 in Singapore, bringing together migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

This year, he will organise the show virtually on June 21 due to the coronavirus pandemic, it said.