Police rescue 43 women from forced labour

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 -- Police rescued 43 foreign women believed to be victims of forced labour exploitation by a cleaning service company in Cheras, here, early this morning.

The rescued victims consisted 37 Indonesian women and six Cambodian women aged between 20 and 43 years old.

Bukit Aman CID Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom) D3 principal assistant director SAC Fadil Marsus said police conducted five separate raids in Cheras and arrested 18 male and one female suspects aged 25 to 60 years old.

He said of the 19 suspects detained, three of them were believed to be the owners and managers of the company while the other suspects acted as guardians of the workers' hostels and transporters.

When met by Bernama in Bukit Aman, here, Fadil said all the victims who were rescued worked as cleaners and were believed to have been exploited according to the definition of forced labour.

"The results of the investigation found that all the victims had valid travel documents and only a few had expired documents while the initial police investigation revealed that there was an issue with salary payments," he said.

Fadil said the suspects, comprising 14 foreigners and five locals, have been remanded for a day to assist in investigation of the case.

-- BERNAMA