[RumpRanger]

I came across this interesting article from The Huffington Post regarding the rules and requirements for being a sex worker in Singapore. I am sharing this for those who are curious or do not know much about Singapore's sex industry.

To quote:

"Legally, Singapore's 15-18,000 sex workers work under a complicated and somewhat paradoxical labyrinth of formal and informal regulations. Exchanging sex for money is not criminalized but public solicitation, owning a brothel, and living off of sex worker earnings is illegal. It is also illegal for non-natives, who Francis estimates make up 60-70% of Singapore sex workers, to engage in commercial sex. In practice (and on the down-low), Francis says the Singapore government operates a licensed and heavily monitored system of semi-tolerance for brothels and foreign sex workers.

According to general knowledge among sex workers in Singapore, sex workers in licensed brothels are required to undergo monthly health checks and are issued a yellow card. The system is not publicly acknowledged by the Singapore government, and so official requirements are hard to discern. Project X has heard from sex workers that the eligibility requirements are stringent: one must be between 21 to 35, from a list of pre-approved countries, and neither Malay, Muslim, male, or trans with a male gender designation on ID documents to qualify for a yellow card. Once an application is accepted, sex workers have reported to Project X, individuals sign a contract with the Anti-Vice police agreeing not to have a Singaporean boyfriend, break any local law, work outside their designated brothel, and accept a ban on travel to Singapore ranging from 3 years to a lifetime after the contract ends.

"I think it is problematic that there are licensed brothels in Singapore but they are explicitly criminalized under the Women's Charter," Vanessa Ho, Project X's executive director says. And as one could imagine, a very small portion of Singapore sex workers operate within that licensed and quasi-tolerated framework: there only 800 to 1,000 licensed sex workers in Singapore, while in a given year, over 5,000 unlicensed sex workers will be arrested.

Singapore "plays this weird yes and no game" with commercial sex, Francis says. "It's slightly better than Malaysia, a few other Southeast Asian countries with full-out criminalization."

I think the 2nd paragraph made a mistake saying that Malays cannot be sex workers. Correct me if I am wrong but I think there are several of them working in Rowell/Desker Rd.