Embassy powerless over sex workers
Fadli, The Jakarta Post/Batam
Amid rising concern over the increasing number of Indonesian women working as sex workers in neighboring Singapore, a government official said not much could be done about it.
Indonesian ambassador to Singapore, Moch. Slamet Hidayat, told The Jakarta Post that his office faced problems in preventing the women from working on the streets.
"It gives us a headache thinking about Indonesian women who work as prostitutes in Singapore. It's hard for us to control them or to take action against them," Slamet said on the sidelines of a two-day meeting of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore's foreign ministers in Batam, which ended on Tuesday.
He said his office once sent two staff to visit the Geylang red-light district in Singapore to determine the number of Indonesian women working in the area. But the staff came back without any clear information as the women were very evasive.
"Our staff did find Indonesian women offering themselves along the streets in Geylang, but when they were interviewed, they said they were just standing there. We can't take further steps like prohibiting them from working there since it's not within our authority to do so," Slamet said.
He acknowledged that many of the women entered Singapore using a regular passport, and were allowed to stay for 14 days, and when the period was almost over, they would return to Batam or Tanjung Pinang before returning to Singapore again.
"To this day we don't know how many Indonesian women are working as prostitutes in Singapore. It's hard for us to control them because they come and go in such a short period," Slamet said.
Batam Police uncovered a syndicate on July 27 that sent Indonesian women from Batam to Singapore to work as sex workers.
In the operation, the police apprehended a sex worker and a woman who sent the Indonesian women for a commission of S$200 for each woman to her partner in Singapore. In Singapore, the woman earns S$35 for a brief service and S$300 for a day-long service.