<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89_ <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>May-14 11:36 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right>(1 of 10) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"></TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>50997.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD id=msgtxt_1 class=msgtxt>SOCIAL ESCORTS ON STUDENT PASSES
Posted on May 13, 2011 by satayclub
A series of high profile anti-vice raids has made scenes like this - of streetwalkers lining a Lorong in Geylang - a much rarer sight these days
By Thomas Yeo
Correspondent
Last year, Channel NewsAsia’s Get Real ran a shocking expose titled “Social Escorts on Student Passes”, revealing that a huge number of foreign students – who are in Singapore on student passes – are involved in the underground sex trade.
Nearly six months on, the problem has shown no signs of abating, even as anti-vice police have raided illegal sex establishments all across the country. Many of the sex workers are now operating indepedently or in small groups, making them harder to detect – and most of them are using the internet to market themselves.
There are more than 1,000 private schools in Singapore, with a total of 100,000 students – the vast majority of whom are foreign. These students have to pay tuition fees ranging from $3,000 to $16,000 per year, in addition to hefty “agent fees” for arranging the student visas. These “agents” work with their counterparts in China and Vietnam to attract impoverished young women, promising that an education in Singapore will lead to a better life for them.
They charge the women up to 50,000 yuan (S$10,000) for arranging their student visas – often allowing them generous credit terms – only to demand payment immediately once they arrive in Singapore. As such, the women are usually coerced or pressurised into joining the sex trade.
Of course, there are also many women who voluntarily join the sex trade, making it very difficult for the authorities to pinpoint the problem. In 2007, the US Department of State placed Singapore in Tier 2 of its Trafficking in Persons Report, meaning that Singapore was not fully complying with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but was making significant efforts to do so. It also said that Singapore was a destination country for human trafficking. Most developed nations were classified under Tier 1.
What is clear is that the shady “visa agents”, who have complex international networks, are at the forefront of illegal human trafficking – both in terms of sex trafficking and labour trafficking – in Singapore. It is not clear how they are able to obtain student visas for their “clients”, though it is almost certain that deceit and fraud is involved.
In the past six months, the Singapore Police Force has conducted several high-profile raids on illegal vice, many of which were reported in the mainstream media. Most ostensibly, the streetwalkers – most of whom are from China – who used to prowl the streets of Geylang are no longer there, while Joo Chiat has also been cleaned up after being turned into a mini red-light district a few years ago.
The video, Social Escorts on Student Passes, can be viewed here.
–
The author is a practising lawyer. He is a graduate of the National University of Singapore and has previously spent two years working abroad.
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Posted on May 13, 2011 by satayclub
A series of high profile anti-vice raids has made scenes like this - of streetwalkers lining a Lorong in Geylang - a much rarer sight these daysBy Thomas Yeo
Correspondent
Last year, Channel NewsAsia’s Get Real ran a shocking expose titled “Social Escorts on Student Passes”, revealing that a huge number of foreign students – who are in Singapore on student passes – are involved in the underground sex trade.
Nearly six months on, the problem has shown no signs of abating, even as anti-vice police have raided illegal sex establishments all across the country. Many of the sex workers are now operating indepedently or in small groups, making them harder to detect – and most of them are using the internet to market themselves.
There are more than 1,000 private schools in Singapore, with a total of 100,000 students – the vast majority of whom are foreign. These students have to pay tuition fees ranging from $3,000 to $16,000 per year, in addition to hefty “agent fees” for arranging the student visas. These “agents” work with their counterparts in China and Vietnam to attract impoverished young women, promising that an education in Singapore will lead to a better life for them.
They charge the women up to 50,000 yuan (S$10,000) for arranging their student visas – often allowing them generous credit terms – only to demand payment immediately once they arrive in Singapore. As such, the women are usually coerced or pressurised into joining the sex trade.
Of course, there are also many women who voluntarily join the sex trade, making it very difficult for the authorities to pinpoint the problem. In 2007, the US Department of State placed Singapore in Tier 2 of its Trafficking in Persons Report, meaning that Singapore was not fully complying with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but was making significant efforts to do so. It also said that Singapore was a destination country for human trafficking. Most developed nations were classified under Tier 1.
What is clear is that the shady “visa agents”, who have complex international networks, are at the forefront of illegal human trafficking – both in terms of sex trafficking and labour trafficking – in Singapore. It is not clear how they are able to obtain student visas for their “clients”, though it is almost certain that deceit and fraud is involved.
In the past six months, the Singapore Police Force has conducted several high-profile raids on illegal vice, many of which were reported in the mainstream media. Most ostensibly, the streetwalkers – most of whom are from China – who used to prowl the streets of Geylang are no longer there, while Joo Chiat has also been cleaned up after being turned into a mini red-light district a few years ago.
The video, Social Escorts on Student Passes, can be viewed here.
–
The author is a practising lawyer. He is a graduate of the National University of Singapore and has previously spent two years working abroad.
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