Boss nabs runaway KTV singers in Geylang

[Cao Pi]

Boss nabs runaway KTV singers in Geylang
'Molest', they shout. 'Mai chup', he says
By Gan Ling Kai
July 17, 2010

When two women from China he had hired as KTV singers vanished, he spent a few weeks searching for them.

After scouring more than 50 massage parlours, pubs and karaoke lounges across 40 lorongs in Geylang, he finally found them.

Then he was almost bashed up by a group of men after the women shouted that they were being molested.

In the end, he managed to hand over Miss Xu Jing, 25, and Miss Qin Li, 22, to the police.

The women were sent back to China by the employers yesterday morning.

 

[Cao Pi]

Ha ha ha... rubbish snipped.

 

[chowka]

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WHEN two women from China he had hired as KTV singers vanished, he spent a few weeks searching for them. After scouring more than 50 massage parlours, pubs and karaoke lounges across 40 lorongs in Geylang, he finally found them.

Then he was almost bashed up by a group of men after the women shouted that they were being molested. In the end, he managed to hand over Miss Xu Jing, 25, and Miss Qin Li, 22, to the police. The women were sent back to China by the employer yesterday morning.

The saga began on June 7 when the women, who claimed they are cousins from Hubei, arrived here to work as KTV singers in an Orchard Road nightclub. The club's general manager, who wanted to be known only as Mr Zhuang, 63, said they told him that same day that they didn't want to be singers.

He said they disappeared after that. Mr Zhuang, who stood to lose a $10,000 security deposit with the Ministry of Manpower, gathered a group of about 20 "friends" for a manhunt in Geylang. Around 1am on Thursday, Mr Zhuang and the freelance recruitment agent who brought the women here headed to Geylang again to look for the runaways after receiving a tip-off.

Mr Zhuang told The New Paper: "My friends in the industry told me these two girls were spotted working at Geylang Lorong 19." The recruitment agent, a 33-year-old China-born permanent resident here who wanted to be known only as Mr Long, was the most active in the search for the women.

He said: "When we got there, I saw Qin Li talking on her mobile phone while leaning against a bicycle parked along the street. "She was wearing heavy make-up and a short black skirt. We looked each other in the eye before she ran off." After Mr Zhuang stopped the car, both men got out to give chase, but to no avail.

Mr Zhuang said: "Can you imagine a 63-year-old man like me having to run after them in the dark?" He said there were dozens of prostitutes and pimps loitering in the alleys and he had to check them out one by one to look for Miss Qin. After searching for an hour, the two men decided to go for supper.

But they were not about to give up. After their steamboat meal, they resumed the search. Around 3am, they spotted both women at a coffee shop near Lorong 15, Mr Long said. "The girls had removed their make-up and they were eating with a plump, middle-aged woman, who seemed to be a Chinese national. An elderly local man was sitting with them," he said.

Mr Long said he rushed over and held on tightly to the shoulders of the two startled women. He claimed that in a bid to escape, Miss Xu stood up and kicked him on his right thigh, narrowly missing his groin. Mr Zhuang said Miss Qin also tried to run away but he grabbed her hair.

"The girls shouted 'da qiang' (robbery in Mandarin) and 'fei li' (molest), and a crowd of about 20 men surrounded us," he said. "Some of them thought we were crooks and wanted to wallop us." Fortunately, Mr Zhuang had the police report he had made about the missing women on June 22 - the day before their social visit pass expired.

"With one hand still on the girl, I took out the report and shouted to the men in Hokkien: 'Mai chup' (don't meddle), I have already reported this to the police.



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[chowka]

Backed off

"That's when the men backed off," Mr Zhuang said. Miss Qin and Miss Xu's companions also left the scene quickly, said Mr Long. Mr Zhuang said he then called the police, who arrived and took the women away to Bedok Police Divisional Headquarters.

A police spokesman confirmed that the women were arrested in the early hours of Thursday near Geylang Lorong 15. They were suspected to be illegal immigrants. He said the employer produced the relevant travel documents subsequently.

Miss Qin and Miss Xu were released to Mr Zhuang around 9am yesterday. When The New Paper team arrived at the Bedok Police Divisional HQ, the women were being taken to the airport by a four-person repatriation escort detail hired by Mr Zhuang.

The women had no chance to say goodbye to anyone here or even to pack their belongings. "You can only make one phone call," a female escort told them. On the expressway to the airport, Miss Qin hurriedly gave instructions in Mandarin to an unknown man over her mobile phone.

"Pack our bags, keep them light and take them to the airport," she said. "Don't forget the stuff we bought while shopping at 'si ma lu' (Waterloo Street). If you want to see me, come quickly." Is the man on the line a compatriot, a friend or a lover? Miss Qin would only say: "Why do this to us? We are not bad women."

When they boarded the plane, which took off for Macau at 11.15am, neither the man on the phone nor the women's luggage was in sight. Mr Zhuang's nightclub has about 10 women KTV singers from China. They earn $1,200 to $1,500 monthly, plus tips from customers.

Would he recruit women from China again after this experience? Mr Zhuang said: "I will still hire China girls. Very few from Hong Kong and Taiwan want to come here because they feel that the market here is not good enough.

"It is hard to get local girls to work in nightclubs. What else can I do?"

 

[chowka]

We needed the money: Women

THE two women claimed they had not done anything wrong. On the way to the airport yesterday, Miss Qin Li told The New Paper in Mandarin: "Who says we didn't want to be singers? It is Mr Zhuang who didn't like our looks after seeing us in person." They said they could not just return to China immediately.

Miss Qin said: "We owe our family members and friends a lot of money. We each had to pay the agent in China RMB30,000 (S$6,000). We didn't pay the agent in Singapore." After their escape, they claimed they could not work. Miss Xu Jing said: "Miss Qin was sick for a month so I had to take care of her."

They said they stayed in a room in a shophouse at Geylang Lorong 9 after they ran away. Mr Long, their agent here, said each woman probably paid about RMB10,000 to their agent in China.

He said the women paid him $500 each for their application for their work permits and the fees for the medical check-up here. Mr Long and Mr Zhuang accused them of putting up a fight when they were found on Thursday. The women denied this but did not elaborate.

 

[po2wq]

no pigture? ...

 

[chowka]

no pigture? ...

Story first.....

 

[chowka]

Few women runaways, but numbers increasing

Mr Peter Ng, 43, who runs A Team Services, a company providing repatriation services, told us that in the past, it was mostly the male foreign workers who ran away from their employers after arriving here. "Female foreign workers who ran away were few and far between," Mr Ng said.

But he has noticed an increase this year. Said Mr Ng: "Just this year alone, my company has already handled more than 10 cases of missing female foreign workers. About five of them are still not found yet." Nearly a third of the 33 KTV lounge operators approached by The New Paper recently said that they, too, have had foreign women employees disappear on them.

But most said they would just forfeit the security deposit without conducting an extensive search. Currently, the number of illegal immigrants and overstayers here is at a 10-year low. It stood at 5,560 last year, down from 16,500 in 2000.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

 

[chowka]

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From left to right: Miss Xu Jing and Miss Qin Li in the company of repatriation escort Miss Marilyn Poh​

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Xu Jing trying to turn away from the camera​

 

[chowka]

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Hostesses are mainly from China and prefer to converse with men who are closer to home.
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The woman with the white bag is Qin Li. The other woman is Xu Jing.​

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The two women from China, Miss Xu Jing and Miss Qin Li, being escorted to the airport.


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[chowka]

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Miss Xu Jing and Miss Qin Li (the one wearing denim) being held by repatriation escort Miss Marilyn Poh at the airport.
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Miss Xu Jing and Miss Qin Li (the one wearing denim) being held by repatriation escort Miss Marilyn Poh at the airport.
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Miss Xu Jing was one of the two women from China who arrived here to work as KTV singers in an Orchard Road night club.​

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Miss Qin Li one of the two women from China who disappeared.​

 

[jw5]

Going back already, still cover face for what?