We Built This City

After Singapore's first riot in decades, locals ask hard questions about the migrant worker abuse.



On the night of December 8, 2013, paramedics rushed to the scene of a fatal traffic accident in Singapore’s Little India neighbourhood, where tens of thousands of South Asian workers socialise on their day off.

Little did anyone expect the situation to escalate into a bloody riot, Singapore's first in more than 40 years.

The accident had occurred after construction worker Sakthivel Kumaravelu, a 33-year-old labourer from India, was stopped from boarding a bus ferrying migrant workers back to their dormitories. The bus ran over and killed him as he chased after it and fell.

An angry crowd built up as paramedics struggled to extricate his body. They pelted the bus and first responders with rocks, glass bottles, even road dividers.