KOTA KINABALU: Police rescued three underage girls in what is believed to be a sex trafficking attempt at a budget hotel in Sandakan on Monday.
State Deputy Commissioner of Police DCP Datuk Razarudin Husain said the underage girls, all foreigners aged 15 and 17, were allegedly being held against their will inside a budget hotel room before they were rescued by police from the Sandakan crime investigation department.
An 18-year-old foreign man, believed to be the caretaker, was arrested in the 6pm operation and he was taken to the Sandakan police headquarters for investigation, he said.
“The rescue operation was made following a tip-off. The three victims were without any travel documents and we believed to have just arrived in Sandakan before being locked inside the hotel room for sex exploitation,” said Razarudin, adding that police also seized RM300 in the raid.
The suspect who is a passport holder, had lured the three girls to become prostitutes at the hotel while he solicited sexual services via ‘WeChat’ application with customers at a charge of RM180.
All the three victims who have no identification documents, begged the police to save them during the raid.
Razarudin added that a thorough investigation would be carried out to determine if the case was related to human trafficking syndicates.
The victims have now been placed at a welfare shelter pending investigation under Section 14 of the Anti-Trafficking In Persons Act and Anti Smuggling of Migrants 2007.