By Celine Lim

WITHIN just six months, six of his China songbirds have gone AWOL after arriving in Singapore.

And with them, his security deposits totalling $30,000.

Their employer, who wanted to be known only as John, had hired the young women to work as singers in his nightclub in the "city area".

He asked that we not name him or his club because he didn't want his business to be affected.

Except for one, who worked for three months, they all stopped showing up for work and disappeared - with their passports - within a week.

John said in Mandarin: "I think their real motive was to use the jobs as a springboard to get into Singapore legally.

"They then ran away, I suspect, to join KTV lounges as hostesses because the pay is higher there."

He said each singer earned $2,000 a month and were provided accommodation at dormitories.

John, who is in his 40s, said the women were hired on Performing Artiste Work Permits, which are valid for six months.

He paid the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) a $5,000 security deposit for each singer, and had to forfeit $30,000 after the six women disappeared.

He said he has never had problems with runaways in the "many years" that he has been hiring singers from China.

Troubles started

But his troubles started after a change in work permit issuance regulations earlier this year.

He said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) used to issue Professional Visit Passes to the singers he hired. The singers had to pass a test of sorts before the passes were approved.

"In the past, the singers we hired had to go to for an interview at the Singapore Embassy in Beijing. They had to sing one or two songs to prove they're qualified artists."

But since 1 Feb, the ICA stopped issuing such passes.

Instead, the MOM introduced the Performing Artiste Work Permit. John said the new permit did away with the qualifying "test" requirement.

It also allowed the permit-holder to remain in Singapore for only six months, unlike the previous pass which had a one-year validity.

John said: "Once the test was no longer required, I think the China middlemen took the opportunity to recruit girls who want to come to Singapore.

"And because they can only stay here for six months instead of a year, the girls probably ran away to try to maximise their earnings with higher-paying jobs. After all, they're paying the middlemen the same amount of money but can only work here for six months now."

John reported the runaways to the police and has cancelled their work permits.

The first runaway, Miss Yue Zi Han, 23, who is from Liao Ning, had a boyfriend who used to patronise John's nightclub.

After three months, he had chalked up about $2,000 worth of drinking debts on her tab, but could not pay up.

Miss Yue claimed she could not settle her boyfriend's debt as he had been borrowing money from her as well.

John said: "She told us that he had been harassing her and we noticed that her heart was not in the job.

"So, in January, we told her to go home for a while and return to work for us when things settle down. She agreed and we bought her an air ticket home."

His company then provided the flight number and date of departure to the MOM for the return of the deposit.

But a week later, he was informed that he would have to forfeit the deposit.

"That was when we found out that she had not flown back to China," said John.

"We thought she was not a flight risk because we didn't even ask her to repay the $2,000 her boyfriend owed us so we didn't take her to the airport."

He said the company would normally escort employees who had been fired or left on bad terms to the airport.

Belongings gone

The second incident in February involved three singers from Liao Ning. John said the women had worked for only two days before they ran away.

He said: "When they didn't show up on the third day, we went to their dormitory and found their belongings gone. Some of their room-mates said they had heard the singers asking their friends here which lounges were the most lucrative if they were to work as hostesses.

"I guess they decided to run away after realising that singing doesn't pay as well."

John said the China middleman managed to get him the telephone number of one of the women's families in China. He then asked one of his employees to pretend to be the woman's friend and call the family for more information.

"Her family said she is doing well in Singapore, but didn't know her address."

A few months passed before another two singers went missing. This time, a middleman he was working with for the first time connived with two singers to hoodwink John.

The singers from Ji Lin were supposed to arrive in Singapore at 9pm on 27 Jun. But on the day of their arrival, the middleman called to say the two women had missed their flight.

John said: "He said the singers were crying and that they were very worried as it was their first time leaving the country.

"But he assured me that he had booked them on another flight."

The next day, John's employee went to meet the women. But there was no sign of them after more than an hour. When all the passengers from the flight had claimed their luggage, the employee informed John of the no-show.

He then called the immigration department at the airport to find out if the women had been detained. They had not.

'Middleman lied'

He tried calling the middleman, but the latter had turned off his handphone.

John said: "I then tried to cancel their work permits online, thinking they'd changed their mind. But when the system didn't allow me to, I realised the women were already in the country.

"They had probably arrived as scheduled on 27 Jun, and the middleman had lied to us so we wouldn't go to the airport."

Despite the losses he has incurred, John said he will continue hiring singers from China.

He said: "We still have to do business, but we'll be more careful. After all that's happened, we now keep the singers' passports when they arrive. But it depends on your luck too.

"One of my friends, who also runs a nightclub, had an employee who ran away without her passport."

THE SONGBIRDS
WHEN: Jun 2008 WHO: Zou Ming Jian, 20, from Ji Lin WHAT: Employer waited at airport for four hours, but did not see or hear from her	WHEN: Jun 2008 WHO: Li Tian Fei, 20, from Ji Lin WHAT: Employer waited at airport for four hours, but did not see or hear from her	WHEN: Feb 2008 WHO: Qi Qian, 22, from Liao Ning WHAT: Worked two days. Ran away from hostel. Uncontactable	WHEN: Feb 2008 WHO: Wang Chun Mei, 23, from Liao Ning WHAT: Worked two days. Ran away from hostel. Uncontactable
WHEN: Jan 2008 WHO: Yue Zi Han, 23, from Liao Ning WHAT: Worked three months. Ran away to avoid drinking debts chalked up by boyfriend	WHEN: Feb 2008 WHO: Zhang Li Li, 20, from Liao Ning WHAT: Worked two days. Ran away from hostel. Uncontactable

This article was first published in The New Paper on Oct 16, 2008.