GEORGE TOWN, March 9 – The police rescued 27 Bangladeshi men who were victims of human trafficking in a raid in two different location in mainland here Tuesday and arrested three local men, aged between 30 to 60, near the location of the operations, said Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Gafar Rajab.
He said 17 of them were found at a double storey house in Taman Desa Murni about 11:00am and another 10 were found at a workshop in Bagan Lalang about 3:30pm same day. He said the victims aged between 20 to 48 were found locked by padlocked inside the two premises when police arrived at the scene forcing them to break the lock to gain entry.
“The victims are weak when we found them because they were only fed with roti canai (fried bread) and plain water. Besides that, the premises also lacked proper sanitation facilities which all the victim had to sleep on the floor,” he told a press conference here today.
“The victims paid RM15,000 each to be brought into the country before being taken to Shah Alam, Selangor and Johor for work but they were rejected by factories there due to paperwork issues. The victims were then taken to Penang and arrived to Penang on Monday,” he said.
In additional, he also added that the victims did not have any posses work permits and the victims passports were being held by another suspect still at large. The case will investigations under section 26(H) of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (ATIPSOM) Act 2007 and the Immigration Act 1959/1963.
