KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia police confirmed to Bikyamasr.com on Monday afternoon that they had discovered a number of young Vietnamese women who had been held as sex workers by three local men and a Vietnamese woman in a human trafficking ring. “We arrested the men and woman on Friday and are currently investigating the situation,” a police source said on condition of anonymity. It is the latest crackdown on sex trafficking in the country, after reports recently showed a rise in the number of women being trafficked into the country to work as sex workers. The victims said they had been told by the traffickers that they would have high paid jobs as waitresses but, in fact, they were forced to work as sex workers. The men allegedly offered the young women the options of sex work in hotels, or marrying local men to earn money to pay for their airfare and other costs it incurred to bring them to Malaysia, said Abdul Jalil Hassan, a Malaysian official for fighting vice, quoted in VietNam Net. According to police investigations, the human traffickers were completing procedures for two of the women to marry local men, each of whom would pay 18,000-20,000 ringgit (VND120-140 million) for the marriage. The suspects in the case are being held for further questioning while the victims will be sent to a witness protection center after undergoing medical check-ups. “It is something that we need to get under control,” said Kuala Lumpur women's rights advocate Nureen Disak, who also helps former sex workers make their way back into the real world. “It is a major struggle for so many of these girls because of the trauma inflicted on them and the horrors they have had to deal with on a daily basis,” she added. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/6uPdL Tags: featured, Malaysia, Police, Sex Workers, Trafficking, Vietnam Section: Human Rights, Latest News, Southeast Asia, Women
