For the first time in seven months, Chinese national Chen Yanfei, 31, came face-to-face with her missing husband - in front of a court judge last Monday.
The Shenzhen resident asked him to cough up some money for their four-year-old son. Singaporean Tan Jiak Hee, 59, is alleged to have abandoned both Ms. Chen and their son last year.
Not only are banks and finance companies feeling the credit crunch, the troubled economy is also claiming another group of victims - foreign brides.
Various organisations report a rising number of foreign-born women who say the same men who spent thousands of dollars to bring them here are now withholding cash, threatening divorce, and in some extreme cases, dumping them at the airport with a one-way ticket home.
The Hainan Hwee Kuan, a clan association, said the number of Hainanese brides it assists has more than doubled - from 25 to 56 - since September last year.
Lawyer Cheng Kim Kuan, who handles legal disputes between foreign brides and their husbands at the clan association for free, said he receives one new case every week on average.
Many foreign brides say they are being abused at home - locked up and not given money to spend. Others say they are treated like maids.
Mr. Cheng said he expects this number to rise even further as more jobs are lost. ‘These men think of their wives as expendable objects, like furniture,’ he said.
Most of these men are mature blue-collar workers who cannot afford new wives when their jobs are axed and belts have to be tightened.
Ms. Fu Xi Bin of Heng Mei Matchmaking Services, which specialises in recruiting Hainanese brides, called the men’s actions a ‘cost-cutting measure’.
‘Yes, it’s extreme, but not surprising if the man is not in love with his wife.’
Ms. Susie Wong, chairman of women’s shelter, Star Shelter, said the number of foreign brides it houses has doubled from four to eight this month. ‘Under normal circumstances, there are already family abuses cases. What more in a recession?’
Most of the women she helps are from the Philippines.
Brides from Vietnam, another popular locale for bachelors here to source for partners, have felt the pinch too.
An embassy official estimates that the number of Vietnamese brides who approach them for help has gone up from three to five a month since last year.
‘Many people have lost their jobs,’ said one abandoned bride, who asked not to be named. ‘We’re not so different.’
The cost of a foreign bride, including agency fees and airfares, ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. In the last six months, at least 15 businesses here dealing in foreign brides have closed shop.
Without many friends and with no family here, foreign brides in Singapore have little recourse when marriages turn sour.
Their plight is compounded by the fact that many hold only long-term social visit passes which have to be renewed by their husbands every 90 days - a rule that some use to coerce their wives into keeping mum about being bullied.
Few can afford to hire lawyers and, unlike Singaporean wives, are turned away from free or subsidised legal advice at centres whose services are for citizens and permanent residents only.
In one extraordinary case reported to the Hainan Hwee Kuan last December, a young Hainanese woman alleged that her husband forced her to sign divorce papers before packing her off to the airport the next day.
They had been married for less than a year and she was six months’ pregnant.
In the divorce papers, the man is said to have stated that he was not financially responsible for his wife, nor their child once they were back in China.
Ms. Chen is trying to avoid the same fate. In sworn affidavits filed in court in January, she alleged that Mr. Tan had ‘neglected and refused to provide any reasonable maintenance for our child’.
Mr. Tan, a part-time project supervisor, has asked the judge to consider his ‘financial plight and heavy financial obligations’ amid the economic downturn.
‘I don’t know how much longer I can work. I have exhausted my very limited resources and my CPF savings and so I cannot continue to provide for my child,’ he claimed. ‘As the cost of living is fairly low in Shenzhen, my contribution of $50 per month should be more than enough to see to the child’s needs.’
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Imported wives left in the lurch
By Yen Feng
9 March 2009
For the first time in seven months, Chinese national Chen Yanfei, 31, came face-to-face with her missing husband - in front of a court judge last Monday.
The Shenzhen resident asked him to cough up some money for their four-year-old son. Singaporean Tan Jiak Hee, 59, is alleged to have abandoned both Ms. Chen and their son last year.
Not only are banks and finance companies feeling the credit crunch, the troubled economy is also claiming another group of victims - foreign brides.
Various organisations report a rising number of foreign-born women who say the same men who spent thousands of dollars to bring them here are now withholding cash, threatening divorce, and in some extreme cases, dumping them at the airport with a one-way ticket home.
The Hainan Hwee Kuan, a clan association, said the number of Hainanese brides it assists has more than doubled - from 25 to 56 - since September last year.
Lawyer Cheng Kim Kuan, who handles legal disputes between foreign brides and their husbands at the clan association for free, said he receives one new case every week on average.
Many foreign brides say they are being abused at home - locked up and not given money to spend. Others say they are treated like maids.
Mr. Cheng said he expects this number to rise even further as more jobs are lost. ‘These men think of their wives as expendable objects, like furniture,’ he said.
Most of these men are mature blue-collar workers who cannot afford new wives when their jobs are axed and belts have to be tightened.
Ms. Fu Xi Bin of Heng Mei Matchmaking Services, which specialises in recruiting Hainanese brides, called the men’s actions a ‘cost-cutting measure’.
‘Yes, it’s extreme, but not surprising if the man is not in love with his wife.’
Ms. Susie Wong, chairman of women’s shelter, Star Shelter, said the number of foreign brides it houses has doubled from four to eight this month. ‘Under normal circumstances, there are already family abuses cases. What more in a recession?’
Most of the women she helps are from the Philippines.
Brides from Vietnam, another popular locale for bachelors here to source for partners, have felt the pinch too.
An embassy official estimates that the number of Vietnamese brides who approach them for help has gone up from three to five a month since last year.
‘Many people have lost their jobs,’ said one abandoned bride, who asked not to be named. ‘We’re not so different.’
The cost of a foreign bride, including agency fees and airfares, ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. In the last six months, at least 15 businesses here dealing in foreign brides have closed shop.
Without many friends and with no family here, foreign brides in Singapore have little recourse when marriages turn sour.
Their plight is compounded by the fact that many hold only long-term social visit passes which have to be renewed by their husbands every 90 days - a rule that some use to coerce their wives into keeping mum about being bullied.
Few can afford to hire lawyers and, unlike Singaporean wives, are turned away from free or subsidised legal advice at centres whose services are for citizens and permanent residents only.
In one extraordinary case reported to the Hainan Hwee Kuan last December, a young Hainanese woman alleged that her husband forced her to sign divorce papers before packing her off to the airport the next day.
They had been married for less than a year and she was six months’ pregnant.
In the divorce papers, the man is said to have stated that he was not financially responsible for his wife, nor their child once they were back in China.
Ms. Chen is trying to avoid the same fate. In sworn affidavits filed in court in January, she alleged that Mr. Tan had ‘neglected and refused to provide any reasonable maintenance for our child’.
Mr. Tan, a part-time project supervisor, has asked the judge to consider his ‘financial plight and heavy financial obligations’ amid the economic downturn.
‘I don’t know how much longer I can work. I have exhausted my very limited resources and my CPF savings and so I cannot continue to provide for my child,’ he claimed. ‘As the cost of living is fairly low in Shenzhen, my contribution of $50 per month should be more than enough to see to the child’s needs.’
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