Brides and prostitutes- I've seen them all
Yesterday The New Paper reported how Viet brides are moved around S-E Asia like commodities. Today, two Vietnamese living in S'pore speak up about their compatriots
By Dawn Chia
December 28, 2006
HOOKER or husband-hunter.
That's the impression many Singaporeans have of Vietnamese women here.
Vietnamese national Linh (not her real name) has seen both types.
The mother of one, in her 30s, is a familiar face in the Vietnamese community here.
She has been married to a Singaporean for six years.
Linh didn't meet her husband through a matchmaking agency. She met him in Vietnam when he was on a business trip.
But she knows about the plight of Vietnamese women who have come here through matchmaking agencies, as well as 'working girls'.
She often helps those who need a listening ear or advice.
Those who come here to be matchmade have a simple wish - settle down and start a family. Ms Pham Thi Hong Truc is one of them. (See report on facing page.)
Not all are lucky.
Linh claimed some are forced by matchmaking agencies to marry against their will.
She told The New Paper: 'Before the girls arrive, they are told that they don't have to marry the men if they don't want to.
'This is not always the case - some agencies literally force the girl to leave with the man so they can close the deal.'
But two matchmakers here say this is not common.
Mr Janson Ong of Life Partner Matchmaker said he would not force Vietnamese women to marry just any one.
-- Picture: KUA CHEE SIONG
Mr Martin Wong of Mr Cupid International Matchmakers agreed.
He said: 'Both parties have to agree because it is a lifetime commitment.'
The matchmaking industry is lucrative - packages are priced between $5,000 and $10,000, and the profit is more than half the price of a package.
Linh said Singapore is now the prefered destination for many of these girls.
A few years ago, the trend was for village girls to look for Taiwanese husbands, she said.
That changed after some girls married less than desirable spouses who treated them as child-bearing machines and live-in maids.
Singapore became the next most sought-after place.
Some Vietnamese women also enter into sham marriages, she said.
These are your Geylang and Joo Chiat 'working girls'.
These women sometimes pay local men to marry them, so they can continue to work as prostitutes here.
At least 12 Singaporeans have been jailed for between four months and a year for such offences since 2004.
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau has opened files on 140 suspects so far this year, more than four times the number it handled in the whole of last year.
In 2004, the authorities were aware of only eight cases.
Linh said: 'They (the women) know that once they get married, they can apply for permanent residency (PR) status or a long-term pass.
'These women will pay the man between $2,000 and $3,000 to sign the marriage certificate and a further $500 or so each month to extend her visa.'
SHAM MARRIAGES
Couples in sham marriages do not live together - the woman may not even know where her 'spouse' lives. All she has is a contact number to call him once a month to extend her visa.
Linh said: 'Sham marriages have been taking place for more than three years.
'I know of a few divorces which took place recently between Vietnamese women and their Singaporean 'spouses' - these are the result of fake marriages.'
A typical woman involved in a sham marriage will be in her early 20s. She spends the nights earning her keep. In the mornings, she goes looking for a better catch.
If she finds someone, she will ask her 'husband', often unemployed or much older than herself, for a divorce.
Often, the women will divorce the men after they obtain PR status.
To get PR status, various documents (such as the marriage and educational certificates) will have to be produced.
Applicants then will have to wait a few months before they know if their application is successful.
But not all are like this, said Linh. Some Vietnamese women in the vice trade were duped into coming here, she said.
They are brought in by 'recruitment agents' promising jobs as waitresses and cleaners in restaurants.
In reality, they are forced to work in pubs and sell their bodies when they get here.
The women often take huge loans, running into a 'few thousand dollars', to pay these 'recruitment agents' before coming here.
Linh said: 'Girls who have managed to escape and gone to the embassy for help confided in me that they were forced into prostitution.
'But there are some who are not so lucky, and I believe they are still working to pay off their debts.
'Those who are repatriated have to face their debtors when they go back - it is a lose-lose situation for them.'
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This wife says: Joo Chiat 'working girls' give my people a bad name
IT makes her angry when some of her countrymen give Vietnamese brides a bad name.
Ms Pham Thi Hong Truc (above), 20, has been in Singapore for three months, after finding her husband through a matchmaking agency, Mr Cupid International Matchmakers.
Ms Pham said she heard from friends and relatives about the 'working girls' in Joo Chiat.
She told The New Paper in Mandarin: 'When I was preparing to come to Singapore, I was worried about how people might look at me - would they think I'm a 'working girl'?
'I didn't want to be mistaken for a prostitute and be treated differently just because I'm Vietnamese.'
Thankfully, her worries were unfounded.
She lives in a quiet three-room HDB flat with her husband, 37, a renovation contractor who earns $2,000 a month, his elderly mother and his sister.
No one has passed any nasty remarks, she said.
If anything, neighbours thought she was Thai because of her darker complexion.
Ms Pham said, with a laugh: 'When I first arrived, I was so tanned people thought I was Thai.
'Now, I'm fairer, probably because I don't go out in the sun as often as I did when I was back home.'
Ms Pham, who also speaks Vietnamese and is learning English, is the youngest of six siblings. She comes from Hau Giang province, a six-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
Her two elder sisters are married to Taiwanese men, but she was encouraged to marry a Singaporean by a cousin, who also married one.
They chose to marry a foreigner because she didn't want to marry a Vietnamese man who might 'beat me up when he's drunk'.
As Ms Pham and her relatives joined matchmaking agencies which took prospective grooms to Vietnam to select brides, they didn't have to save to get married or pay the agencies.
Her husband paid $11,000 to the agency.
Ms Pham, who has applied for PR, has not met many matchmade brides like herself, much less ventured into Joo Chiat, as she is still new to the country.
She recalled how stringent the immigration authorities were when she first landed here.
Ms Pham said: 'The airport officers asked me a lot of questions about my purpose here, whether I was here as a tourist or here to work.
'I told them I was here as a bride.
'Perhaps they thought I was related to the girl who died earlier this year because our names are very similar.'
She was referring to Ms Pham Thi Truc Linh, who fell to her death from a block of flats in Toa Payoh in March.
While Ms Pham wants to distance herself from the 'working girls', she is quick to jump to their defence.
She said: 'Not every one wants to be in that line - some are forced by circumstances.
'I'm sure they have reasons for doing what they do.
'As long as my husband and family know I'm not like them, I'm happy.'