Embassy powerless over sex workers

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.