Going Overseas
I was on a short Tiger Airways flight back to Singapore last evening, and as usual, I could not sleep much on such short flights.
A young Vietnamese lady seated next to me appears to be feeling the effects of motion sickness. She woke up once in a while to talk to her "friends" seated behind us. I noticed that there were 2 more Singaporean guys with this groups of 3 Vietnamese girls, and the fact that they were seated separately and only spoke a sentence with one of the girls who can speak Mandarin caused me to be suspicious.
I have seen enough of girls on such flights coming over for the maximum of a month stay, to work in one of the pubs In Geylang or Joo Chiat. Me and my wife used to frequent Joo Chiat for the Vietnamese food and you could definitely see and hear alot of the on-goings at the coffeshop. She met a Vietnamese girl who managed to escape from one of such pubs during her part-time job at the airport. We ended up spending the whole night trying to arrange for the girl's flight home and make sure she was safe at the airport. She was promised a job as a waitress, but was told to wear skimpy clothes and entertain patrons at a pub.
It was obvious that the girl seated next to me was on her first flight. She was pretty excited and kept looking over my shoulders at the lights as we flew over Johor. I am not sure if she knew what she was getting into. The flickering lights from the aircraft could turned into the glitzy night club lights for her soon. Her "friend" sounded more uninterested in the view from the window, and I assumed they have been on such trips before. I couldn't help but told the girl beside my that we were flying over Malaysia and have not reached Singapore in Vietnamese. We spoke a few sentences with my limited Vietnamese, and I asked "you going to Singapore for work?"
She appeared to think for a second before replying "for a month of holiday".
Her child-like excitement and her hesitation before answering me are contradictory to me.
As we disembarked, one of the young guys with them was speaking on his phone. From a few seats away, I could hear "I get less than a hundred dollars commission".
So I was right in my assumptions.
Together with my wife, we have provided the sad story of the girl we helped to the newspaper that I worked for and it was published. I hate to see the same thing happening to this girl, but I was not sure if she knew what awaits her on her first overseas trip.
I observed the group as the tried to clear immigration. They failed and I could see the 2 guys trying to argue with the officers, but in vain. I am sure the immigration officers knew about this type of activities.
I breathed a sign of relief, for the girl seated next to me. But it might well be the first of their attempt, and there is nothing I could do to stop it. The girls have learnt to dress decently to avoid immigration officers from questioning them, and now, there are even per trip "boyfriends" to bring them in.
I would not care if they know what they are here for, but it saddens me and my wife to know that we could only help one of hundreds of such victims.
The 3 girls being detained at the immigration.
A young Vietnamese lady seated next to me appears to be feeling the effects of motion sickness. She woke up once in a while to talk to her "friends" seated behind us. I noticed that there were 2 more Singaporean guys with this groups of 3 Vietnamese girls, and the fact that they were seated separately and only spoke a sentence with one of the girls who can speak Mandarin caused me to be suspicious.
I have seen enough of girls on such flights coming over for the maximum of a month stay, to work in one of the pubs In Geylang or Joo Chiat. Me and my wife used to frequent Joo Chiat for the Vietnamese food and you could definitely see and hear alot of the on-goings at the coffeshop. She met a Vietnamese girl who managed to escape from one of such pubs during her part-time job at the airport. We ended up spending the whole night trying to arrange for the girl's flight home and make sure she was safe at the airport. She was promised a job as a waitress, but was told to wear skimpy clothes and entertain patrons at a pub.
It was obvious that the girl seated next to me was on her first flight. She was pretty excited and kept looking over my shoulders at the lights as we flew over Johor. I am not sure if she knew what she was getting into. The flickering lights from the aircraft could turned into the glitzy night club lights for her soon. Her "friend" sounded more uninterested in the view from the window, and I assumed they have been on such trips before. I couldn't help but told the girl beside my that we were flying over Malaysia and have not reached Singapore in Vietnamese. We spoke a few sentences with my limited Vietnamese, and I asked "you going to Singapore for work?"
She appeared to think for a second before replying "for a month of holiday".
Her child-like excitement and her hesitation before answering me are contradictory to me.
As we disembarked, one of the young guys with them was speaking on his phone. From a few seats away, I could hear "I get less than a hundred dollars commission".
So I was right in my assumptions.
Together with my wife, we have provided the sad story of the girl we helped to the newspaper that I worked for and it was published. I hate to see the same thing happening to this girl, but I was not sure if she knew what awaits her on her first overseas trip.
I observed the group as the tried to clear immigration. They failed and I could see the 2 guys trying to argue with the officers, but in vain. I am sure the immigration officers knew about this type of activities.
I breathed a sign of relief, for the girl seated next to me. But it might well be the first of their attempt, and there is nothing I could do to stop it. The girls have learnt to dress decently to avoid immigration officers from questioning them, and now, there are even per trip "boyfriends" to bring them in.
I would not care if they know what they are here for, but it saddens me and my wife to know that we could only help one of hundreds of such victims.
The 3 girls being detained at the immigration.
posted by Kwang Peng at 10:12 AM
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