AN INTERNATIONAL syndicate sending local and foreign women to Australia for prostitution in the last three years came to a crashing end early yesterday.

Acting on a tip-off from Australian federal police, officers from the Bukit Aman Anti-Vice, Gambling and Secret Society branch raided a house in Pandan Perdana at 1am and arrested a 44-year-old man and a woman, aged 55.

Nine women, eight Malaysians and a Chinese national, were also detained but police have yet to ascertain whether the women were being prepared to be shipped overseas.

The couple is believed to be the key members of a syndicate that sends local and foreign women overseas using forged Malaysian passports and fake student visas.

Malaysia's location in the region and its long-standing relationship with Commonwealth countries like Australia has made the country's travel documents a favourite for international syndicates.

Some syndicates are also making a fortune smuggling economic refugees from the Middle East to Australia via Indonesia, sending them in rickety boats from illegal jetties across the peninsula to Indonesia.

Federal CID deputy director Datuk Hadi Ho Abdullah told reporters that initial investigations revealed the couple had amassed more than RM2 million from their illegal actiivities.

He said police would invoke an order under the Anti Money Laundering Act to seize their ill-gotten assets. The couple has been detained under the Emergency Ordinance to facilitate investigations.

Hadi Ho said police had yet to determine the actual number of women sent abroad and were also investigating whether the syndicate had tricked its victims by offering them overseas jobs and forcing them into prostitution or if their “clients” knew they were to become sex workers.

He said Malaysia was one of the countries being used as a transit point for human traffickers. However, he pointed out, other countries were also used by syndicates for human trafficking of sexual workers and labourers.

He said police would track down the syndicate’s other members and runners to shut-down their network.
Police would also liaise with the Immigration Department to determine how the syndicate was able to forge Malaysian passports.

Police are cooperating with other police forces around the world to combat the human trafficking problem.
Currently a 10-man police team from Indonesia is in Kuala Lumpur to work out methods to stop international syndicates with their Malaysian counterparts.

It has been reported this year that 19 human traffickers have been charged in court under the Anti-Traffcking in Persons Act 2007. One had been sentenced to eight years’ jail while three others had been given sentences of five months’ jail each.

The Attorney-General's Chambers is appealing the cases as it wants them to be given longer jail terms. Four had claimed trial and the others are waiting for their cases to be heard. Under the same Act, anyone who is deemed a victim of human trafficking is given immunity from immigration laws.