BINTULU: Eleven human trafficking victims were forced to work without salary and only allowed to sleep four or five hours a day.
Sarawak CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar said although the victims were given food everyday, they appeared weak when they were rescued.
“They were thin and some had bruises on their bodies. They would be beaten if they didn’t get the job done properly,” he said.
The victims, including nine women aged between 18 and 40 and two men aged 23 and 44, from Indonesia, had been locked in a house and forced to clean bird’s nests for the past three years.
The victims, Dev said, were currently placed at the district police station and would be sent for medical examination.
“We are investigating how they entered the state or how they fell into this ‘trap’,” he said.
On Monday, a police team raided a single-storey terrace house in Taman Heng, Jalan Sebiew, here and rescued the victims.
The victims had been confined to a small room that was locked from outside.
A 59-year-old man and his 53-year-old wife were arrested during the raid.
The suspects are being investigated under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.