VICE SITUATION

VICE SITUATION

22.

Mr Ravindran asked the Minister for Home Affairs what actions the police and immigration authorities will take to check the increase in prostitution activities by foreigners in HDB estates, private estates such as Katong, and shopping areas such as Chinatown .

Mr Wong Kan Seng: Police has been closely monitoring the vice situation in Singapore . Let me assure the House that the situation is under control. While the media has recently highlighted prostitution activities in housing estates and shopping areas by opportunistic foreigners, the situation is not rampant. In fact, not all of them loiter in such areas for the purpose of prostitution. For example, in HDB estates, the majority of female foreigners arrested were found selling 4-D lottery and pirated VCDs, and not for soliciting for sexual services in public.

Nevertheless, Police has in recent months received more complaints about vice activities. It has stepped up enforcement actions. As a result, more arrests have been made. For the periods January to June 2004, 2,670 female foreign sex workers were arrested, compared to 1,221 arrests over the same period (January to June) in 2003 and 1,738 in 2002, and 2,301 and 3,422 arrests for the whole of 2003 and 2002 respectively. Police will, in particular, take enforcement actions to clean up vice activities taking place outside the traditional red-light areas so as to contain such activities within these areas. Any foreigner found to be involved in vice activities while in Singapore will be repatriated and banned from re-entering Singapore .

As a preventive measure, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) adopts a calibrated approach and regularly fine-tunes its visa requirements and procedures to deter entry of non-genuine visitors without affecting the arrival of bona fide visitors. Visitors to Singapore will only be granted entry if they meet our entry requirements, such as holding a valid passport, a confirmed air ticket, and a valid entry visa, if required. Visitors may be subject to further checks and interviews if they are suspected to be coming to Singapore for vice or other nefarious reasons. In such instances, ICA will not allow them entry.

I would like to assure the House that these enforcement actions will continue. We will monitor the situation closely and introduce new measures if necessary.

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