Malaysia busts Ugandan prostitution ring
The Star/Asia News Network
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR: A major Ugandan sex slave ring that forced its own nationals into prostitution in China and here was busted by police in a sting operation.
Twenty-one women, many of them in their 20s, were locked up as syndicate members worked them non-stop for 10 hours daily for the past three months.
The women were holed up inside four units of the Mentari Court apartment in Bandar Sunway.
Syndicate members kept the women in line by beating and raping them if they refused to "work."
Each customer was charged RM300 (S$122) for a night out with the woman that they chose.
The hellish nightmare for these women ended at 10.30am on Friday when a team of policemen from Bukit Aman stormed the premises and rescued the women, aged between 18 and 42.
Two women in their 40s and believed to be working for the syndicate were also arrested, as well as an African customer.
The raid followed a report lodged by a victim who had related her ordeal to an embassy officer.
It is learnt the officer had earlier gone undercover as a client and booked the 20-year-old woman before taking her out.
All the victims have been placed at a welfare home and they are expected to be deported once the investigations are over.
Police had the apartment under surveillance for two weeks before raiding the premises, said Federal CID Director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin.
"They were basically slaves and if they wanted to be free from the syndicate's clutches they had to pay a debt bondage of US$7,000 (S$8,830)," he said.
It was learnt that although many of the victims had raised enough money through their "work" to pay off the debt bondage, syndicate members still refused to let them free by lying to the them that their debt was still pending.
The women from Kampala were lured here with promises of lucrative jobs in hotels, opportunities to study in colleges and to work as maids with a salary of US$1,000, said Comm Mohd Bakri.
He added that the women fell for the offers when they were also provided with free passports, flight tickets and other documents.
The Star/Asia News Network
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR: A major Ugandan sex slave ring that forced its own nationals into prostitution in China and here was busted by police in a sting operation.
Twenty-one women, many of them in their 20s, were locked up as syndicate members worked them non-stop for 10 hours daily for the past three months.
The women were holed up inside four units of the Mentari Court apartment in Bandar Sunway.
Syndicate members kept the women in line by beating and raping them if they refused to "work."
Each customer was charged RM300 (S$122) for a night out with the woman that they chose.
The hellish nightmare for these women ended at 10.30am on Friday when a team of policemen from Bukit Aman stormed the premises and rescued the women, aged between 18 and 42.
Two women in their 40s and believed to be working for the syndicate were also arrested, as well as an African customer.
The raid followed a report lodged by a victim who had related her ordeal to an embassy officer.
It is learnt the officer had earlier gone undercover as a client and booked the 20-year-old woman before taking her out.
All the victims have been placed at a welfare home and they are expected to be deported once the investigations are over.
Police had the apartment under surveillance for two weeks before raiding the premises, said Federal CID Director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin.
"They were basically slaves and if they wanted to be free from the syndicate's clutches they had to pay a debt bondage of US$7,000 (S$8,830)," he said.
It was learnt that although many of the victims had raised enough money through their "work" to pay off the debt bondage, syndicate members still refused to let them free by lying to the them that their debt was still pending.
The women from Kampala were lured here with promises of lucrative jobs in hotels, opportunities to study in colleges and to work as maids with a salary of US$1,000, said Comm Mohd Bakri.
He added that the women fell for the offers when they were also provided with free passports, flight tickets and other documents.
