Sex Workers

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[This is a test page and will be populated once a volunteer takes ownership. If you would like to volunteer to contribute information, email justin.lee@nus.edu.sg]

Overview

The commercial sex scene in Singapore can be divided into two broad categories, transgender sex workers and cis-gender sex workers. While the challenges each group faces have some overlaps, owing to the restrictions of 377A, there are some challenges unique to transgender sex workers.

Priority Issues

  • Police Abuse
  • Client Abuse
  • Brothel Abuse
  • Migrant Sex Workers
  • Media Portrayals
  • Legal Confusion

Actionable Opportunity Areas

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Knowledge Gaps

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Definitions

Sex Work

  • Sex work is defined as the act of a female offering her body for sexual penetration for hire, whether in money or in kind.
    • Also known as commercial sex
  • Procurement of sex worker involves the arrangement of a sex worker to engage in a sexual act with a customer
    • Also known as pimps
  • Procurement of sexual services: Paying someone for their sexual services

(Singapore Legal Advice, 2021)

Key Statistics & Figures

  • Approximately 4200 sex workers in Singapore (Singapore Legal Advice, 2021)
  • To engage in sexual services legally, sex workers must be (Ja'affar, Ho, Lee, Sherqueshaa, 2019):
    • Aged between 21 and 35
    • From China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore
    • Legally recognized as female
  • Work areas include Geylang, Little India, Changi Village, Woodland Gardens and Orchard Towers
  • Above statistics do not include pre or non-op transgender sex workers as they are not legally allowed by the state to engage in sex work (Project X, The Allard K. Lowstein International Human Rights Clinic, 2015)

Map of Key Needs & Issues

[This table and arrows acts as a kind of visual map that allows a sense of sequencing; of the broad preconditions necessary for longer term outcomes to be achieved. Hyperlink the categories below to the specific page or sub-header in the page for easy navigation, so that you can click on 'Employment' below for example, and get straight to that page / segment]

Click the links below to go directly to specific areas of interest:

Community Integration ↘
Social Inclusion
Family & Caregiving ↗
Financial Independence
Employment ↗
Education ↗

Sub-pages

  • If there are population segments that have substantial enough information or interest, then create sub-pages for them. e.g. 'Autism' can be a stand alone pages linked to the Disability pages if the autism community is keen to populate more autism specific information. Or, artists with disability can populate a 'Arts & Disability' page.
  • Insert links to these sub-pages.

Areas of Needs / Desired Outcomes

Need to prevent police abuse

This applies to both cis and transgender sex workers. Police abuse towards sex workers can be in the form of physical, verbal and/or emotional abuse. They may also adopt unfair arrest practices such as by denying sex workers access to counsel or translators. Police often use intimidation techniques, threating to use their guns and tasers as well as grabbing women by their hair (Ja'affar, Ho, Lee, Sherqueshaa, 2019). Specifically for transgender sex workers, police may harass them and challenge the gender on her identity card. Police have also detained transgender women through profiling, even though they were not engaging in any sexual activity. Police would also take photos of transgender women without telling them the purpose for these photos. (Project X, The Allard K. Lowstein International Human Rights Clinic, 2015).

  • Desired outcomes: A need area necessarily implies that there is a desired outcome that has yet to be met. It is important to articulate what the ideal or desired outcomes for this particular need area should be, otherwise it would be unclear what the gaps will be. The trick is to use adjectives to articulate a statement about what is the desired state of affairs. People with disabilities need 'viable jobs' (that pays a living wage), or 'desirable careers' (with progression and career development)? In terms of the example above: If the desire outcome is no longer portable music (because most solutions now are portable), then a different quality like 'searchable' or 'discoverable' music would set a new criteria for what is desired.
  • Synopsis: Provide an analytic summary of the table below, of how existing resources (if any) have been meeting the need, and gaps that still exist. The goal is to make sense of a lot of information, so at every segment, the tables and information collated seeks to be comprehensive; here at the start of each segment, we aspire to a good synoptic statement that captures the essential and highlights the pertinent. An example: If the area of need is 'Accessibility & Affordability of childcare', then the synopsis might be: "Even though there are 1,510 childcare centres across Singapore, 80% of low-income single mothers cannot afford them as they earn less than $1,500 a month.
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  • Statistics: Insert the specific figures and trends relevant to only this area of need.
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Existing Programmes Gaps & Their Causes Possible Solutions
List existing services or programmes (private or public; formal or informal); relevant policies and legislation as long as they are a resource or asset that helps meet the needs stated in this segment.

Group these resources into categories and put them into a specific cell of the table.

Some gaps could be due to 1) capacity of solution to meet size & projected demand, 2) quality of solution (effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, scalability etc.), 3) accessibility (geographical, cost to client)

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Category A: Streaming services
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  • Annoying ads on free streaming services
  • Incomplete collection
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Category B: Physical devices
Category C: ?

Category A: Streaming services

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Resource Directory

The T Project

https://www.thetprojectsg.org/

Project X

https://theprojectx.org/

References

Ja’affar, L., Ho, V., Lee, M., & Sherqueshaa, S. (2019). Stakeholder report by sex workers in Singapore. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/SGP/INT_CEDAW_NGO_SGP_29070_E.pdf

Project X & The Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. (2015). They only do this to transgender girls. https://law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/area/center/schell/they-only-do-this-to-transgender-girls-singapore-report-final.pdf

Singapore Legal Advice. (2021, June 25). Laws on Procuring Sex Workers & Sexual Services in Singapore. SingaporeLegalAdvice.Com. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/laws-procuring-sex-workers-sexual-services-singapore/

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