Global Issues

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Singapore

• Destination country for men, women and girls subjected to sex trafficking.

• Women from Thailand, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal recruited in home countries with legitimate employment offers. On arrival in Singapore, deceived or forced into prostitution.

• Some women from these countries enter Singapore with the intention of engaging in prostitution but upon arrival are subjected to forced prostitution.

•  Some foreign women in “forest brothels” located on public lands near migrant worker dormitories reportedly victims of trafficking.

• Organized crime syndicates believed involved in international sex trafficking of women and girls to Singapore.

• Singaporean men have reportedly been a source of demand for child sex tourism in Southeast Asia.

• 2009 survey by a local NGO found that 9% of respondents reported sexual or physical violence in their lifetime.

 

Advocacy:

In 2004, Bridget Lew Tan founded the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics to respond to the specific needs of migrant workers. HOME continues to operate and expand its assistance to migrant workers and trafficking victims.

• Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers is a coalition of sex worker groups and projects working on issues of HIV and human rights for female, male and transgender sex workers across Asia and the Pacific.

 

Sources: U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011; U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report, U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011