The Brothel in Singapore: Karin's True Story of Slavery
Published April 01, 2009 @ 04:08PM PT
Traffickers lure victims in a number of ways, but one common technique is to promise a job opportunity, often abroad. Sometimes, that job turns out to be slavery in the industry the promised job was in, and sometimes that job is forced prostitution. This is the story of Karin, from the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Karin, a young mother of two, was looking for a job in Sri Lanka when a man befriended her and convinced her that she could land a better job in Singapore as a waitress. He arranged and paid for her travel. A Sri Lankan woman met Karin upon arrival in Singapore, confiscated her passport, and took her to a hotel. The woman made it clear that Karin had to submit to prostitution to pay back the money it cost for her to be flown into Singapore. Karin was taken to an open space for sale in the sex market where she joined women from Indonesia, Thailand, India, and China to be inspected and purchased by men from Pakistan, India, China, Indonesia, and Africa. The men would take the women to nearby hotels and rape them. Karin was forced to have sex with an average of 15 men a day. She developed a serious illness and three months after her arrival was arrested by the Singaporean police during a raid on the brothel. She was deported to Sri Lanka.
Sadly, not many stories of trafficking end happily, or even with the victim getting needed services. Karin's story illustrates the vast work which needs to still be done.
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Comments (3)
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Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.
Hi,
As residents in Singapore, we are concern of the street prostitution rings that are still active in our neighbourhood. Please see videos at:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3Sxg4Os0sQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0mo8FFuIL8
Not only these Sri Lankan prostitution rings terrorize our neighborhood with their aggressive soliciting; they are exposing the women to risks of sexual diseases and dangers as these women have to solict along the street. The hotel in question is profiting from providing room rentals to such sex rings.
Are these consider human trafficking by definition ?
Thanks for your help.
Jessy Koh
Posted by Jessy Koh on 06/18/2009 @ 02:06AM PT
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Hi Jessy,
Your question has a couple of answers. First, the legal definition of human trafficking varies from country to country, so I would check Singapore's laws for your exact definition. Secondly, by the international definition, someone is a trafficking victim if they have been forced, tricked, or coerced into that situaation. It's impossible for me to tell from those videos what's really going on. Have you expressed your concerns to a local agency who might be able to find out?
Posted by Amanda Kloer on 06/19/2009 @ 05:54AM PT
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Hi Amanda Klore,
Thanks for your kind attention. I wish to express my appreciation and admiration of your numerous contributions to the society and humanity.
In Singapore, the laws is such that prostitution is legal as with licensed brothels, while soliciting of commercial sex is not (as with street prostitutes ).
Street prostitution are rampant in some areas in Singapore.
In the said Sri Lankan prostitution videos, these women are watched over by more than 10 male pimps as we can see in the videos. After the women manage to solicit the clients, they will go to the said hotel ( Chang Ziang Hotel ) to transact their deals. The hotel operator/staff know about these illegal prostitution activities conducted within their rooms, yet remain ignoring residents' complaints of the sleaze and crimes that are attracted.
The authorities have conducted several raids and arrests in the hotel and other affected areas, but so far our appeals to investigate on these Sri Lankan prostitution rings received no positive replies or none at all. We also notice that among these women, there are teenagers.
There are more than 10 of such budget hotels providing hourly rated or short hours rated room services which are attracting more street prostitution and pimps into the residential areas and even in non-red light district.
We believe that such pimps and budget hotels so be dealt with by the authorities instead of just arresting the women who may be too fearful of these pimps.
Our purposes are to hope that our authorities will stop issuing budget hotel licenses with hourly or short time rated practice. We also hope our authorities will closed down such hotels with repeated drugs and prostitution related problems.
Once again, thanks for your kind attention.
Jessy
Posted by Jessy Koh on 06/20/2009 @ 10:22PM PT
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