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SINGAPORE: Police are stepping up enforcement against foreign sex workers. Over the next few months, more police officers will be empowered to conduct anti-vice operations.
Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and Law, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, revealed this in Parliament on Monday.
He was replying to MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Christopher de Souza's questions on the steps taken to reduce the number of prostitutes working on social visit passes.
Professor Ho said police arrested 5,400 female foreigners for vice-related activities in 2007. 91 per cent or 4,900 of them were in Singapore on social visit passes.
He said his ministry has a number of measures in place to screen and prevent sex workers from coming into Singapore under the guise of social visitors. This includes denying visas to those with adverse records or "irregularities" in their applications.
Last year, the police conducted more than 900 vice-related raids to nab those who slip through the immigration system.
Professor Ho added that the number of foreign sex workers arrested in the heartlands is "very small", constituting one per cent of all foreigners arrested in Singapore.
Last year, police also prosecuted 15 pimps and 30 vice-abetters in court.
Professor Ho said Singapore has a comprehensive legal framework and a robust operational framework to deal with vice and human trafficking, and will continue to finetune this framework as necessary. - CNA/vm
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