Singpore Riot Highlights Foreign Worker Discontent

Twenty seven people have been arrested following the worst case of civil unrest that Singapore has seen in over four decades, local press reported.
A mob of approximately 400 foreign workers were involved in the riot late on Sunday evening, sparked by a fatal accident involving a 33-year old Indian national who was run over by a private bus in Little India, a Singaporean district that is home to large amounts of Indian and Bangladeshi foreign workers. Ten police officers and four civil defense officers were injured.
The crowd of foreign workers swarmed the bus, chasing the driver – a Singaporean national – and set police vehicles and an ambulance on fire.

The incident comes amid rising tensions in Singapore, considered one of the world’s safest cities, about the recent influx of foreign workers, many of them immigrants from South Asia. The last riots to take place in Singapore were race related in 1969.

Following Sunday’s riot, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong published a statement on his Facebook page urging local Singaporeans to stay calm.

via First riot in 40 years rocks peaceful Singapore

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza