Women trafficked to Singapore lured into prostitution

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Three weeks after having her appendix removed last year, Filipina bar girl Camille was forced by her pimp back to work as a prostitute in Singapore.

Penniless and deeply in debt in a foreign land, 24-year-old Camille, not her real name, had no choice.

She says she had sex with men in hotel trysts arranged by her pimp, who took most of the money, until she sought shelter at the Philippine embassy.

"My wounds barely healed and I was being forced to have sex," she told AFP, breaking into sobs during an interview before flying home earlier this year.

"The pimp had no pity. The men had no mercy. I should have listened to my parents not to come here."

Philippine embassy officials said Camille, a single mother, is among a growing...