This series will consider the state of the sex industry and sex workers rights in each of the 10 ASEAN countries. Since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, foreign women were already being brought into Singapore to meet with the rising demand of sex and women due to the influx of work sojourners in Singapore. For instance, in , there were 60, Chinese men but only 6, Chinese women.
Riddled with diseases, these pitiful women were often also murder victims. Seeing no other escape from their living hell, a number of these prostitutes took their own lives. While some threw themselves off buildings, others preferred a more subtle method — an opium overdose.
However, by , the British began criminalising activities surrounding sex work in some of their colonies. In fact, Singapore bifurcates between quasi-regulation and criminalisation today. In Singapore, sex work is legal, but many activities surrounding it are criminalised.
Since , there has been increase in the number of police raids on brothels. As of , there are an estimated 10, sex workers in Singapore, with less than 1, of them being registered under the government. Despite the option of being registered, more workers have shifted to online, street-based, massage parlours-based, and entertainment venue-based sex work.
Nationality is used to categorise the workers into different brothels. Sex workers must be between age 21 to 35, and are mandated to work six to seven days a week, with no allowance for medical leave. With the rising popularity of platforms like OnlyFans and due to the lockdown restrictions during the COVID pandemic, many workers have pivoted to carrying out online sex work.
