S’pore probes purported video of Lankan sex workers

By Easwaran Rutnam

Singapore has begun a probe over a purported video made public showing Sri Lankan sex workers and notorious pimps operating in Geylang, the red light district of the country after a report over it was published in the Daily Mirror on Wednesday.

The Sri Lankan embassy in Singapore said it had raised the issue with the Singapore Foreign Ministry who in turn has said they would check on the matter with their agencies. The Ministry has however said that it was very unlikely official Singaporean government websites would have aired such a clip.

“After your article appeared we also sent a copy to the Singapore Foreign Ministry. The Singapore MFA have informed that they are still checking on the existence of such a video but have indicated that it is very unlikely that official websites would have aired such a clip,” Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Singapore Shehan Ratnavale told the Daily Mirror.

While the secretly shot video is freely available on the popular ‘Youtube’ website and is credited to the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CID Anti Vice branch in Singapore there are several other videos also on the same website which exposes the Sri Lankan pimps and their operations in Geylang.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner meanwhile asserted that his Mission in Singapore is easily accessible for Sri Lankans in the country and assured that whenever Sri Lankans seek assistance the Mission has rendered complete assistance and on many occasions facilitated their return to Sri Lanka.

He further added that law enforcement authorities in Singapore are very accessible and are known to be very effective. However despite his claims some of the secretly shot videos available on the ‘Youtube’ website claim that some Sri Lankan pimps have been carrying out their operations in Geylang for many year and question how they manage to evade the authorities.

Prostitution is legal in Singapore but there are reports some of the Sri Lankan sex workers have been coaxed into the trade and have no way out of it. The narrator in the video credited to the Singapore government is her saying the Sri Lankan sex workers are afraid to reveal the identities of their pimps who are seen having a close watch on them throughout the day.

Meanwhile a top official at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) revealed that Sri Lankan sex workers were operating in several other countries as well, most of them willingly in order to seek better income.

“Some of them have also told their agents here that they are going for that purpose. As for Singapore, since you don’t need a visa to go to that country they go citing other reasons but with the intention of being part of the sex trade. But there are those who are not happy once they see what they are getting themselves into and then make false claims that they were coaxed into it and seen assistance to return home,” the SLBFE official said on the condition of anonymity.

The Singapore authorities last year they began placing CCTVs along selected Geylang streets to prevent crime and this has a deterring effect in soliciting by sex workers. Some of these CCTV cameras have also captured the Sri Lankan pimps in operation, according to footage seen on some of the videos published on the ‘Youtube’ website.

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