Our authorities are good at clearing GL but it seems it would take a lot more for these gals...
THEY'RE BACK
Sex workers play 'hide & seek' with law near Mandai cemetery They disappeared after our report was published, but now...
ONE mystery has been solved, but another has cropped up.
It seems the unexplained sights and sounds at a former cemetery off Woodlands Road may have more to do with the underworld than the netherworld.
Factory workers in Mandai Estate opposite the Kwong Hou Sua cemetery had revealed that after dark, they would hear strange voices and see lights there.
What they thought was a supernatural occurrence was really prostitutes haunting the cemetery grounds.
Soon after the foreign women's activities were exposed in The New Paper on 7Jun, they seemed to have vanished into thin air.
'Sighting'
Then, barely a week later, there was another kind of 'sighting' there.
This time, figures resembling men and women could be seen walking single file across the barren area towards a forest.
Like shadows, they moved in and out of the cemetery grounds, the size of four football fields, almost unnoticed in the evenings and mornings.
Said a security supervisor from a nearby factory: 'I'm sure there is a logical explanation. There are many places to play 'hide and seek' there for somebody wanting to keep a low profile, especially if you're hiding from the law.'
On 8 Jun, Lianhe WanBao reported that a group of foreign men had been staying in the dense forest bordering the cemetery.
Published photographs of makeshift huts with clothes, cooking utensils and food indicated the shelters were still being used.
The mini-kampung was located beside a stream.
It is believed that the men would leave the forest looking for work in the mornings, only to return in the evenings.
Three days later, workers at the cemetery site office said the women were still plying their trade there.
One evening, another few days later, we observed four women entering the cemetery grounds from a gate on Woodlands Road.
Two of them were accompanied by a man wearing a red T-shirt.
Another two sexily-dressed women later walked towards the forest unescorted.
Said Mr Maung Khine, 32, a machinist from Myanmar: 'They (the women) are back doing their business.
'Some (of the girls) are friends of the men from the forest. I have seen at least one girl walk towards the camp in the forest.'
When The New Paper recently visited the mini-kampung in the forest, it seemed as though it had recently been cleared.
There were no signs of the huts. Only empty food packets, clothes hangers, wooden stools and plastic bags littered the ground.
From the recently-disturbed soil, we estimated five huts once stood at the site, close to the forest's edge.
Another two campsites were spotted 200m away.
Matter of time
A man we met in the forest said it's only a matter of time before the men return.
Said a 60-year-old man, who gave his name only as Mr Toh: 'Almost every day (during the durian season) I come here, and I would see durian pickers like myself and the 'others'.
'These people who stay in the forest camps are like mosquitos. You get rid of one, others will appear to take their place. I think the only reason they live in such conditions is because they are illegal immigrants.'
Mr Toh said in Malay that he used to live in a Chinese village in the area for 10 years.
Armed with a hard hat and gunny sack, he returns to the forest occasionally to pick durians.
Still, Mr Toh said he believes there's a reason why people choose to stay in the forest.
He added: 'Look around you, you can live off the forest. There are lots of fruits and vegetables.'
Within a 500m radius of where we stood, there were durian, jackfruit and banana trees, while on the ground, pineapple, sweet potato and wild tapioca dot the landscape.
Even after the makeshift camp had been cleared, they are already signs that another is being built.
About 300m from the old site, fresh trails were spotted.
Perhaps the only hint that there is another hideout are the barking dogs protecting the place.
