http://www.asiaone.com/News/The+New+Paper/Story/A1Story20100222-200191.html
Tue, Feb 23, 2010
The New Paper
Red light release
By Gan Ling Kai and Zaihan Mohamed Yusof
WHEN Chinese national Wang Yanbin first arrived in Singapore three weeks ago to work at a factory, his fellow workers were keen to help him settle in.
Other than telling him where to buy local produce and pre-paid phone cards, they also told him where he could find prostitutes.
Said Mr Wang, a 21-year-old native of Jilin: "The day we got here, our friends told us about the red-light district of Geylang."
To many foreign workers like him, who left their wives and girlfriends back home to earn a living in Singapore, sex (or the lack of it) is a problem during their stay here.
China Daily, an English-language newspaper in China, reported recently that a host of social problems may surface when foreign workers are separated from their spouses for prolonged periods.
It quoted the results of a survey commissioned by the Guangdong Sexology Association, which polled 3,093 migrant workers in the cities of Guangzhou and Dongguan last year.
Many of them were from rural China.
The results showed that due to separation from their wives or unhappy marriages, 30 per cent of the married men hired prostitutes for sex. Another 30 per cent said they had many sexual partners.
While there hasn't been a similar study done here, many foreign workers The New Paper on Sunday spoke to said that when it comes to sexual urges, they are only human.
JUST LOOKING: A crowd of foreign and Singaporean men gawk at the prostitutes along the back lanes of Desker Road.
Temptation
Mr Wang, who is single, admitted he is tempted to visit sex workers.
"I'm young and full of energy. If I eventually want a girl, I will get someone of the same nationality. It's easier to communicate."
According to the Ministry Of Manpower, there were 870,000 work permit holders here in 2008 and 856,000 last year. More than 200,000 of them worked in the construction sector.
A 2008 report in the Bangkok Post, an English-language newspaper in Thailand, shed some light on the sexual habits of foreign workers in Singapore.
It reported that Thai construction workers here estimated that 50 per cent of them used sex workers in Geylang while 10 per cent went to jungle brothels.
There have been local news reports about illegal jungle brothels found in places like Lim Chu Kang and Loyang Way.
The set-up is typically minimal - little more than tents and mattresses.
Police raids on such brothels showed that the customers comprised foreign workers and some locals.
Why do these workers choose to have sex in such uncomfortable places?
It's all about affordability, said Mr Shiva, a 25-year-old from southern India, who has been working here as a construction worker for 11/2 years.
He plans to marry his fiancee after two years, but admitted that he visits forest brothels once a month after pay day. He declined to name the locations.
Break monotony
Each visit costs him $20, which to him is a lot of money. He earns $600 a month.
His compatriot, Mr Sundra, who has worked in a shipyard here for three years, said they also visit the red-light district of Desker Road.
He said sexual services there cost between $20 and $50, but added that he has never paid for sex in Singapore.
He joins his friends on such outings to "look only" - just to break his monotonous daily routine.
Said Mr Sundra: "We only makan (Malay for eat), sleep, work, makan, sleep, work. So we talk to Indian and Thai girls."
When The New Paper on Sunday visited the back lanes of Desker Road on a recent Sunday, about a hundred South Asian men were seen crowding outside the entrances of a few brothels.
Many just stared through the doorways at the women or transvestites seated inside who flirted with their admirers.
Two women, an African and an Indo-Chinese, also sat along the alley, basking in the attention of scores of men.
But these onlookers got on the nerves of a local pimp, who barged into the crowd on his motorised bicycle, shouting: "Want to call (patronise) or not? Don't call, don't stand here."
The foreign men dispersed quickly - only to gather again moments later.
Not all foreign workers seek companionship through sex workers. Some form relationships with new girlfriends here - usually foreign domestic workers.
"We only makan (Malay for eat), sleep, work, makan, sleep, work. So we talk to Indian and Thai girls." - Mr Sundra, a southern Indian construction worker
Domestic worker
But the latter's employers frown on this. Under their work permit conditions, female foreign workers will not be allowed to continue employment in Singapore if they get pregnant.
There are also foreign workers who say they abstain from sex when they are here. Some are wary of the risks of sexually transmitted infections, while some married men want to remain faithful to their wives.
Mr Hao Desheng, 25, who came to Singapore with Mr Wang, said he has a 9-month-old son back in Jilin.
"How can I flirt around when my wife is taking care of my baby at home? When the urge comes, I will just 'ren' (Mandarin for endure)."
- Additional reporting by Tay Shi'an
