Six Filipinas were among 105 women rescued by Malaysian immigration
authorities in a raid on a maid agency in Port Klang Saturday, a
Malaysian news site reported Sunday.
The authorities also arrested at least one Filipina who was a suspected "supervisor" of the rescued women, according to a report on Malaysia's The Star.
The report quoted Amran Ahmad, Port Klang director of the Selangor Immigration Department, as saying the women had been locked up on the third and fourth floors of the four-storey agency.
He added that the women were aged between 18 and 25, had only social visit passes and may have entered Malaysia some time in the last six months.
Citing a Bernama report, the article said the raid on the agency occurred at 7:47 a.m. in Bandar Baru Klang.
Conducting the operation were Immigration Department officials with 20 personnel from the Port Klang Immigration Branch.
The 12 people arrested consisted of three local men believed to be employees and nine women—five Indonesians, three Cambodians and one Filipina.
Amran said their initial investigations showed all the rescued women were promised other jobs with a salary of RM700 but then were told that they would only begin receiving salaries after seven months.
Because of this, he said, the victims have not received salaries for the past six months.
"Every morning, the women were taken in a van and delivered to various homes in the Klang Valley to do maid services, picked up again and locked into the four-storey premises. They were not allowed to leave," he said.
Worse, their meager food rations were cut further whenever they questioned the employer about pay or living conditions.
Some of them had to eat paper to stave off hunger, the report said.
Amran said the agency was licensed and had been operating for five years, but said it was illegal for it to employ people on social visit passes and without valid work permits.
He said police are now looking for the Malaysian owner of the agency.
The women have been brought to a halfway house and face deportation, while the 12 arrested will face charges under Section 12 of Malaysia's Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years a fine. — BM, GMA News
The authorities also arrested at least one Filipina who was a suspected "supervisor" of the rescued women, according to a report on Malaysia's The Star.
The report quoted Amran Ahmad, Port Klang director of the Selangor Immigration Department, as saying the women had been locked up on the third and fourth floors of the four-storey agency.
He added that the women were aged between 18 and 25, had only social visit passes and may have entered Malaysia some time in the last six months.
Citing a Bernama report, the article said the raid on the agency occurred at 7:47 a.m. in Bandar Baru Klang.
Conducting the operation were Immigration Department officials with 20 personnel from the Port Klang Immigration Branch.
The 12 people arrested consisted of three local men believed to be employees and nine women—five Indonesians, three Cambodians and one Filipina.
Amran said their initial investigations showed all the rescued women were promised other jobs with a salary of RM700 but then were told that they would only begin receiving salaries after seven months.
Because of this, he said, the victims have not received salaries for the past six months.
"Every morning, the women were taken in a van and delivered to various homes in the Klang Valley to do maid services, picked up again and locked into the four-storey premises. They were not allowed to leave," he said.
Worse, their meager food rations were cut further whenever they questioned the employer about pay or living conditions.
Some of them had to eat paper to stave off hunger, the report said.
Amran said the agency was licensed and had been operating for five years, but said it was illegal for it to employ people on social visit passes and without valid work permits.
He said police are now looking for the Malaysian owner of the agency.
The women have been brought to a halfway house and face deportation, while the 12 arrested will face charges under Section 12 of Malaysia's Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years a fine. — BM, GMA News
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