SHE knows the risks.

If caught by the authorities, she could be jailed and deported.

Yet, the lure of fast money in exchange for sex has brought Jenny and other foreign women like her to Singapore.

Jenny, 33, a Filipina, claimed she was getting desperate and needed money.

So, together with several other girls, she 'signed-up' with recruitment agents in the Philippines and made her way to Singapore.

Jenny, a native of the Bicol region south of Manila, has heard horror stories of Filipinas being conned and forced to repay their debts through work as sex workers.

But she brushed them aside.

GOING TO WORK

"I don't want to end up like those girls standing by the roadside. It's humiliating. I have seen a pimp pulling a girl by her hair. She was crying, but nobody helped." - Jenny, (above, seen walking in the back alley in Geylang where she will meet her client. Her pimp is trailing her from a distance).

Said Jenny: 'Those stories are like urban legends. You don't know whether it's true, but I have to erase them from my mind because I need money.

'Such a job comes with hazards like falling sick, being abused by rough men and being banned from Singapore.'

And life as a sex worker in Singapore, as she found out recently, can have fatal consequences.

Last month, Coco, a 41-year-old prostitute from Malaysia, was murdered in the Serangoon Road area while on the job.

But Jenny, who said she used to run a handicraft business and has been jobless for the past four months, was trying not to think about that.

Said Jenny, whom this reporter had met in a Geylang coffee shop: 'It's my third time here (in Singapore).

'My agent in the Philippines told me clearly what was expected. And I agreed. I'm doing this only because I want to re-start my failed handicraft business and have enough money to support my three children.

'My goal is to make at least $3,000 in the next two months. Then, I'm out of here.'

Family doesn't know

Since 20 Oct, home for Jenny has been a small hotel room close to Geylang.

She had packed light - carrying only three sexy 'work' outfits and undergarments. Her hotel room is quite bare, just in case she is forced to move in a hurry.

In the past, Jenny had worked in bars in Tanjong Pagar. Her family is not aware of what she does here.

But home is never far from her heart.

A stamp-sized photo of her 7-year-old son - the youngest of her children - dangles from her handphone.

Said Jenny, a divorcee: 'This handphone is 'work' - when my pimp calls and tells me where to go. But the phone also reminds me of my family.

'I have not seen them (her children) since my husband, an ex-soldier, took them away five years ago.'

She claimed her husband's parting words to her were, 'Make lots of money and you will see them (her children).'

Jenny added: 'I know my work is shameful. That's why I'm here, where nobody knows me.

'I depend on my pimp, who is a family man. I doubt he will trick me of my earnings.'

AFTER DARK

(Above): Women outside Orchard Towers chat up foreigners.

Jenny, who claimed to be a secretarial diploma holder, intends to get a month's extension on her social visit pass.

The pass does not allow her to work here.

Unlike the streetwalkers on Geylang's streets and back alleys, Jenny's sexual services are based on bookings made with her pimp.

The New Paper on Sunday spoke to him too. The heavily-tattooed man in his 30s said his method is 'low-profile'. He was not willing to discuss how the girls arrive here.

When a police patrol car stopped near the coffee shop during the interview, some of the women standing on the sidewalk nearby quickly disappeared.

But Jenny remained cool and continued talking. 'I don't want to end up like those girls standing by the roadside. It's humiliating,' she said. 'I have seen a pimp pulling a girl by her hair. She was crying, but nobody helped.'

Her nonchalance towards the passing patrol car belies the number of arrests the police have made of foreign prostitutes here - 5,400 last year, up from 4,300 in 2006 and 3,220 in 2005.

To get here, Jenny said she paid about $300 for one-way air fare. She is expected to pay for her lodgings, too.

Her pimp, known only as Ah Fei, is banking on making a killing by charging each client $200 a session. Ah Fei had previously worked with girls he 'ordered' from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, all through the same network of overseas agents.

If Jenny is booked by clients in Orchard Towers, Ah Fei claimed he could make $10,000 in a month.

Said the pimp: 'She will not get a cent until I have made at least $2,000. That's just the way it is because I paid her agent the same amount.'

Jenny would have to sleep with 10 men before she starts earning her keep.

Even then, no money is handed to her directly by the clients as the pimp handles all transactions.

Said the pimp in between inquiries made on his handphone by potential clients: 'I don't treat my girls like those you see by the roadside in Geylang.

'That's not the way to do business. Those girls are treated like animals.

'Sooner or later, they will run, do drugs, overstay or worse, make a police report.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 9, 2008.