JAKARTA – On weekends, the walkways outside Singapore’s Lucky Plaza resemble a vibrant enclave as migrant domestic workers gather on their only day off.
At the popular hangout for workers from Indonesia and other countries, women sit cross-legged on flattened cardboard sheets, unpacking rice packets and fried snacks from plastic containers. Indonesian pop songs drift softly from mobile phones.
For many Singaporeans, it is a familiar scene and part of the rhythm of bustling Orchard Road. But for 17-year-old Nathan Alexandro Tjhe, an Indonesian student studying in Singapore, it was impossible to look away.
“When I first moved to Singapore, I realised many Indonesian migrant workers gathered there every Sunday,” Nathan, who is from Pontianak in West Kalimantan, told The Straits Times.
“A lot of them sent most of their salaries back home, so they had very little left for themselves.”
Singapore relies heavily on migrant domestic workers, with about 316,900 employed as at December 2025, according to the Ministry of Manpower. They come from countries including Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar.
Much of their salaries go towards their children’s schooling, household expenses, or savings for a home back in their countries.
Nathan first encountered that reality in his own home.
His family moved him and his brother to Singapore in late 2021, where he enrolled in ACS (International) in Holland Village.
One evening in 2025, Nathan noticed his Indonesian domestic helper crying quietly.
“She told me her son in Java was having problems in school and had fallen into bad company”, he recalled. “She felt guilty because she was far away and could not guide him properly.”
The woman had been sending nearly all her salary home to support her family and other relatives.
“Sometimes she wanted to buy small things for herself or her child, like a keychain or jacket,” Nathan said. “But she did not have enough money left.”
He could not look away from that either.
