3,000 visitors in Batam for sex

BATAM, Riau: About 3,000 foreigners, mostly from Singapore, regularly visit Batam every month for sex.

"If each foreigner spent about Rp 500,000 (US$61) on sex workers, local commercial sex workers would receive hundreds of millions of rupiah," said tourism analyst Surya. He added that some workers charged only Rp 250,000.

In Singapore, a man would need to spend Rp 1 million to Rp 2 million for short-time sex.

Local authorities have raided commercial sex workers in Batam several times but the business keeps growing, while the population has reached 530,000. --JP