Because Vietnamese are permitted to travel without visas in Singapore
and Malaysia for 30 days at a time, many Vietnamese escorts and prostitutes travel in a constant loop through the three countries, said Nicolas Lainez, an anthropologist in Singapore with the Paris-based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.
“So labor migration overseas seems like the obvious choice for many.”
Malaysia hosted nearly 2.5 million international migrants in 2013, according to the United Nations data, making it the largest destination for migrant
workers after Thailand in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a group of 10 countries with a combined population of more than 600 million.
Instead, to her family’s shock, Ms. Huong is a prime suspect in the Feb. 13 killing of Kim Jong-nam,
the half brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, at the airport for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.