Standing outside a harmless-looking two-story terrace house, a middle-aged man with a balding pate and wispy white goatee greets people walking by with a constant refrain.
“You want to see my girl? Come in, come in!” he exhorts every man in sight, pointing to skimpily clad Asian prostitutes waiting in a softly-lit sitting room along a back street in Geylang, Singapore’s red-light district.
The tout says more than 50 customers patronize his business daily.
Photo: AFP
“Our customers are international, anybody can come as long as they can pay,” he says, brushing aside a reporter’s suggestion that the police might not approve of his operation.
“We’re legal!” he scoffs loudly.
Despite its prudish reputation — the government still bans magazines like Playboy and Penthouse — Singapore allows prostitution to thrive in strictly designated areas, and Geylang is the largest and most famous.
Brothels operating out of houses operate in the district alongside budget hotels, sidewalk cafes, community associations and even Buddhist temples.
Despite the presence of legal prostitution, foreign women on short-term visitor passes also ply their trade on the streets and lanes of Geylang, and there seems to be enough business for everyone.
More than a fifth of the city-state’s population of 5 million are foreigners, the majority of them blue-collar and manual workers.
And 1 million tourists a month now visit Singapore thanks to a booming casino industry.
The local sex trade came under the spotlight in June last year when the US Department of State downgraded Singapore in its Trafficking in Persons Report.
The report said some women from China, the Philippines and Thailand were tricked into coming to Singapore with promises of legitimate employment and then coerced into the sex trade after arrival.
Singapore authorities issued an indignant reply, saying their efforts to curb trafficking had not slackened and asked the US government to look at its own immigration record before commenting on other countries’ situations.
In Geylang’s licensed brothels, customers pay an average of S$50 (US$38) for sex inside cramped cubicles, according to operators who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Their primary customers are guest workers from China, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.
Business is best on weekends when hordes of foreign men on their day off throng its narrow lanes looking for fun.
Like other businesses in Singapore, the sex trade has clear rules.
Brothels can only hire Malaysian, Thai and Chinese girls between the ages of 21 and 27, one tout said.
Prostitutes are also required to make customers wear condoms and report for monthly medical check-ups, he added.
Streetwalker Dan Dan (not her real name) from Beijing said an increased presence of plainclothes police was deterring customers from taking up her US$100 “guaranteed good” service.
Foreign women like Dan Dan who work freelance in the sex trade and bring customers to motel rooms cannot be arrested unless they are caught offering their services out in the street, or violate immigration and other laws.
Local women’s rights activist Braema Mathi advocates protection of prostitutes in Singapore and closer regulation of the industry.
“All we want is for the women to be protected and not judge them for the work that they have decided to take on,” she said.
“We believe that one of the better ways to protect women is to ensure that they work in licensed brothels, where there is a fee structure and condoms,” she said.
With a regulated sex industry, Singapore authorities can turn their attention to women forced into prostitution, she said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of