LABUAN: Five Filipino women, aged 18 to 30 years, have been saved by the police from sex slavery, said Labuan police chief, Superintendent Adzhar Othman, yesterday.
Adzhar disclosed that based on a tip-off, all five Filipinas were saved on Monday night at around 10.30 pm at an entertainment outlet in town in an operation led by ASP Hasnan Abidin.
“The victims were reportedly promised jobs as waitresses in the entertainment outlet, but were forced to work for a month without salary until they were saved. What was worse was that they were also forced to perform sexual services for their clients.
“Based on our initial investigation, we found that all the victims were confined to the rooms provided by their employer and that they were only allowed to come out during working hours. All of them did not have valid documents,” he said.
Adzhar added that from the raid, they managed to detain a man who is believed to be the manager of the entertainment outlet. The manager has since been remanded for a week starting from Tuesday on suspicion of being involved in forcing the victims to work without paying their salary.
For the Filipinas, a two-week Interim Protection Order (IPO) has been applied from the court.
“If there is human trafficking element involved in this case, the Protection Order (PO) will be applied for further action until this case is resolved. This case is being investigated under Section 13 Anti Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Immigrant 2007.
“Our effort to fight the sensitive issue of human trafficking and smuggling of immigrant will continue from time to time for the sake of this island’s image and also for human rights even though the victims come from foreign countries.
“We want to give a warning to the operators of entertainment outlets here on this island not to be involved in any human trafficking activity and that they must adhere to the required laws,” he said, adding that saving the five Filipina victims was the biggest success so far for the police this year.
Meanwhile, Adzhar informed that the responsible agent who brought the five victims from the Philippines to Labuan, known as Rona, has been detained by the Philippines Authority.