SINGAPORE: A Singaporean family was allegedly threatened by loan sharks after their maid couldn’t pay the money she borrowed.
On r/askSingapore, the employer shared that they became suspicious when their maid, who was preparing for a trip home to the Philippines, appeared unusually “calm” about not being able to find her passport and just kept saying she couldn’t remember where she had put it.
The employer suggested reporting the missing passport to the police and contacting the Philippine embassy for a replacement, although they were concerned it would not arrive in time for the planned trip.
When they started getting threats, the employer said she “began to connect the dots”, suspecting their maid may have given her passport to the loan sharks but insisted she had lost it.
“They threatened my family and asked my maid to pay the loan,” she wrote.
She said they had reported the threats to the police and wanted to send the maid back to the Philippines, but her missing passport complicated matters.
“I’m checking the process to apply [for a] new passport or this one-way Travel Documents to send her back asap. Cannot take this non-sense anymore,” she said.
Some commenters advised the employer not to pay the loan sharks any attention, warning that doing so could make the family an easier target for further demands. Others suggested contacting the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for assistance.
As for the missing passport, commenters suggested asking the Philippine embassy to expedite a replacement.
In June, similar threats were received by another Singaporean family when their maid borrowed money from an unlicensed moneylender. The employer said the incident even escalated from threatening messages and repeated spam calls to physical harassment.
The employer said they were disappointed, having treated the maid like family during her year and a half with them, and decided to terminate her employment. According to the employer, the maid “didn’t feel remorse” for her actions and had not told her own family what she had done.
In a previous The Independent Singapore report, MOM had warned it would revoke the work permits of foreign domestic workers who borrow money from unlicensed moneylenders like loan sharks. The ministry said it was taking the issue seriously amid a rise in reported cases. /TISG
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