By Soroptimist
International of Singapore member, Sri Ranjini Mei Hua

"On
5th November 2014, Wednesday, more than 30 men and women, of various ages, and
from different walks of life, responded to a call – it was a call to end
violence against women and girls around the world. The Soroptimist
International of Singapore had jointly organised a panel discussion* with the
Singapore Management University, in association with the Wee Kim Wee Centre, to
address the issue of violence against women across the world, and in
particular, human trafficking in Singapore. The event was intended as a
preamble to the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women on
25th November.

The
event began with opening remarks by local MP Christopher De Souza who had
mooted the idea of an anti-trafficking bill in 2013. This was followed by a
short preview screening of the feature documentary, ‘Call and Response’ which sought to raise
awareness about the global slave trade. It set the scene for the panel
discussion which was made up of experienced researchers and practitioners who
launched into an intense discussion about the state of human trafficking in
Singapore and possible solutions to the problem.

The
panelists for the discussion  included:
Dr Sallie Yea, Assistant Professor of geography at the National Institute of
Education, who spoke about her research on sex trafficking in the Southeast
Asian region; Mr John Gee, former president of Transient Workers Count
Too (TWC2), who spoke about labour trafficking issues; Ms Malathi
Das,
President of the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations, who spoke about
ASEAN’s role in combatting cross-border trafficking in Southeast Asia; Ms Vanessa
Ho, Programme Coordinator of Project X, a social initiative
to end discrimination against sex workers, who shared about her own work in
giving voice to sex workers and the importance of educating them on the
practice of safe sex. The discussion was moderated by Dr Theresa Devasahayam,
President-Elect of Soroptimist International of Singapore.

Photograph: From
far left: Ms Malathi Das, Ms Vanessa Ho. Far
right: Prof Kirpal Singh from the Wee Kim Centre at the Singapore Management
University.

The event
was timely especially since the Singapore Parliament had passed its first law
against human trafficking two days earlier. The law prescribes penalties in the
form of jail terms and fines for trafficking offenders, and provides temporary
support for victims of abuse through shelter, food, counselling, medical care
and employment.

However,
coalition members of StopTraffickingSG – a joint initiative of NGOs such as
AWARE, Healthserve, HOME, TWC2, MARUAH and UN Women, contended that the Act did
not provide enough protection to victims that would allow, much less, encourage
them to bring these traffickers to court. This and other concerns were raised
at the panel discussion by the audience, some of whom were members of
StopTraffickingSG.

For
four years now, Singapore has been placed in Tier 2 of the annual Trafficking
in Persons report, released by the United States Department of State. The
report divides countries into three tiers based on their compliance with
minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Countries
listed as Tier 2 do not fully meet minimum international standards of migrant
worker protection from forced labour or trafficking but are making efforts to
do so while countries in Tier 1 fully comply with the minimum standards of the
TVPA. Besides Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are
listed under Tier 2 as well. The report identified Singapore as a “destination country” for men, women and girls
from at least nine countries, some of whom had initially migrated willingly but
were later forced into the sex trade or made to work against their will and
under the threat of punishment as they were unable to pay off debts to
recruitment agencies.

 

Moderator Dr Theresa Devasahayam raised
the question among the panelists, if it was the US TIP report that had pushed
the Singapore government to address concerns related to human trafficking.

In terms of sex trafficking, although
figures are not available, an independent study by Dr Sallie Yea found 87 women
who had been deceived into entering the sex trade in Singapore. These women who
ended up working in the nightclubs had been enticed by false promises of jobs
such as waitressing and hostessing in Singapore. Meanwhile, some
Indonesian women were already working as
prostitutes in Batam, a popular holiday destination for Singaporeans, before
arriving into Singapore only to be forced by local pimps to continue selling
sex.

Besides forced labour and sex
trafficking, many other forms of labour exploitation occur among the transient
worker community i.e. movement restriction, lack of a living wage, unsanitary
accommodation conditions, etc. and these were discussed at length by the panel.
Larger systemic and policy issues were also raised in the panel discussion
about the need to move beyond an attitude of ‘saving victims’ to a more targeted approach of tackling poverty and rising
inequality, as well as improving access to education for women – a measure that
has both short- and long-term implications, particularly for women forced into
the sex trade.

 

Photograph: Members of the panel, Prof Kirpal
Singh and members of SIS at the close of the event.

The discussion did not end there as
ideas were sparked, connections were made, and plans were formed. In fact, it
is through small but meaningful events such as these that the Soroptimist
International of Singapore raises awareness about the need to end violence
against women. Its future plans include raising funds to support a shelter in
Singapore that houses abused domestic workers".

*A panel discussion was organised in
lieu of ‘Walk
the Talk’ as the events preceding i.e. Prevention
of Human Trafficking Bill being  passed,
provided an opportunity for Singaporeans to deliberate on issues of exploitation
and human trafficking.

The author wishes to acknowledge Kanchana Varatharajalu for her
notes from the panel discussion.