Baghdad-INA
Pope Francis on Thursday called for “fair wages” to be paid to migrant workers, during a visit to Singapore, the last stop on his long tour of the Asia-Pacific region.
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The 87-year-old Pope said in a speech in the wealthy city-state that “particular attention should be paid to the dignity of migrants who contribute greatly to the construction of society and must be protected for a fair wage.”
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 170 million migrant workers worldwide, or about 5% of the world’s workforce.
Most of these workers live in Europe, Asia, and America, and low-cost labor has played a decisive role in the prosperity of modern megacities such as Dubai, Doha, and Singapore.
There are more than 300,000 migrant workers in Singapore, the majority of whom are from Bangladesh, India and China. These workers, in exchange for low wages, contribute to the construction of huge skyscrapers and infrastructure on the rich island.
Human rights organizations have criticized the way the authorities treat these workers and have called for their living conditions to be improved to prevent them from being exposed to any form of exploitation.
Since his election in 2013, the Argentine Pope has emerged as a fierce defender of the rights of migrants and refugees, making repeated calls to welcome them and improve their living conditions.
The Supreme Pontiff arrived in Singapore, with a population of six million, on Wednesday, the fourth and final leg of a marathon tour that included four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The Pope launched his appeal to migrant workers in his first speech in Singapore, which he gave in front of a thousand people at the National University of Singapore.
In his speech, the Pope, who is often a critic of neoliberalism, said: “Anyone who comes here for the first time cannot help but be impressed by the forest of ultra-modern skyscrapers that seem to they rise from the sea.”
He added, “It is a clear testimony of human genius, the dynamism of Singaporean society, and the pinnacle of the entrepreneurial spirit that has found fertile ground to express itself here.”
2024-09-12 12:10:25