Malaysian police raided a four-storey restaurant in Sunway, Kuala Lumpur, early in the morning of March 23 and arrested three local men and a Vietnamese woman suspected of being members of a human trafficking ring.

The victims said they had been told by the traffickers that they would have high paid jobs as waitresses but, in fact, they were forced to work as prostitutes.

The ring offered the young women the options of prostitution, working in hotels, or marrying local men to earn money to pay for their airfare and other costs it incurred to bring them to Malaysia, said Abdul Jalil Hassan, a Malaysian official for fighting vice.

According to initial investigations, the human traffickers were completing procedures for two of the women to marry local men, each of whom would pay 18,000-20,000 ringgit (VND120-140 million) for the marriage.

The suspects in the case are being held for further questioning while the victims will be sent to a witness protection centre after undergoing medical check-ups.

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