Number of Child Trafficking and Illegal Adoption Cases Investigated by the Police in the Past Five Years

Question:

Mr Low Wu Yang Andre: To ask the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs (a) in each of the last five years, how many cases of (i) child trafficking and (ii) illegal adoptions has the Singapore Police Force investigated; and (b) for each category of offences, how many cases have resulted in prosecutions and convictions, respectively, under the relevant laws including the Adoption of Children Act 2022.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. Trafficking in Persons (or TIP) is generally categorised into sex trafficking and labour trafficking.

Over the past five years, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has investigated 59 alleged sex trafficking cases involving children under the age of 18 under the PHTA, the Penal Code 1871, the Women’s Charter 1961, or the Children and Young Persons Act 1993.

2. Of these cases, 34 cases proceeded to prosecution, of which (i) 27 concluded with convictions, while (ii) the remaining seven are under or pending court proceedings.

3. The other 25 cases are either (i) still under investigation; (ii) concluded and the perpetrators received stern warnings or composition fines; or (iii) concluded and no further actions were taken against the initial suspects.

4. There were no reported cases of labour trafficking involving a child during this period.

5. There were also no reported cases of trafficked children under the Adoption of Children Act 2022 during this period.