(Above pic: Miss Ke-er - borrowed $14,000 to work in Singapore, unable to turn back)

Here on a long-term social visit pass, Miss Na-li has worked as a beer promoter and a prostitute in Geylang, and a masseuse at two massage parlours in Chinatown.

“You name it, I’d have done it. I’ve had customers who sneaked off without paying me after sex,” she said.

“Some turn nasty when pressed for payment and threaten to report me to the authorities.”

She added: “Who can I turn to for help? The common people scorn women like me and I can’t possibly go to the police, right?”

But life for Miss Na-li has turned better since January. She is now one of the more sought-after hostesses at two KTV lounges on Havelock Road.

She said: “Just when I thought of giving up, I met a fellow villager who works at one of the KTV spots.

“She recommended me to her mamasan, who liked me at once. I can earn about $3,000 a month but it comes with a sacrifice.”

Miss Na-li added: “I’d hoped to marry a Singapore man and hopefully arrange for my mother to live with me here.

“But which man can accept a woman like me?”

Unlike Miss Ke-er and Miss Na-li, who seemed to have accepted their fate, Miss Qiao-jing, a 22-year-old from Guangzhou, wants out.

In a 45-minute interview, she repeated “I hate it here” more than 20 times, but claimed she is unable to return home because “my father will kill me”.

Miss Qiao-jing, who is also here on a long-term social visit pass, said: “He borrowed so much money to arrange for me to come here.

“He wanted to send my younger sister here along with me, but I dissuaded him because I didn’t want her to be ‘zhao ta’ (ruined in Mandarin).”

It was only when she promised to remit at least $2,500 a month that her father relented.

She did not want to give more details about her family, except that she also has two younger brothers. Her mother walked out on the family 10 years ago.

Miss Qiao-jing works as a food stall helper from noon to 7pm but transforms into a street prostitute in Geylang from 9pm to 3am.

She said: “I’ve no other choice. Tell me how else I can earn enough money.”

When she gets beaten up by sadistic customers or when they refuse to pay, she puts it down to pure bad luck.

Said Miss Qiao-jing with a derisive laugh: “Then what do you expect? Do you think anyone will be willing to help someone – no matter how pitiful – like me?

“Please, we just live and let live. And if we can’t take the hardship and have nowhere to go, then maybe, that’s when our lives must end.”

This article was first published in The New Paper.