BINTULU: The number of Indonesians who were forced into modern day slavery in the Bintulu human trafficking case numbers 13 people and not 11 as previously reported.
Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Dev Kumar said a 15-year-old teenager is the youngest of the 11 female victims rescued by the police from a single-story house in Taman Heng, Jalan Sebiew here yesterday.0
“The remaining female victims are between the age of 16 and 40, while the other two victims are males aged 23 and 44,” he said in a statement today.
He added seven of the victims were staying in the country with expired passports, which had been taken away from them by a 59-year-old man and his wife, who are the suspects in the case.
The rest of the victims do not have any valid travel documents.
Acting on a week-long investigation, a police team raided the unit and found the frail and thin-looking victims inside a room at the premise.
The victims broke into tears and begged the raiding party to save them when they were rescued from the unit.
The suspects, who were also inside the house during the raid, were subsequently arrested although the woman showed some resistance by threatening and hurling vulgar words against the police.
Preliminary investigations showed the victims were forced into cleaning bird’s nests without being paid for the past three years.
The suspects had also allegedly prevented the victims from leaving the premises.
The couple have been remanded for seven days beginning today to assist police investigation into the case under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (ATIPSOM) Act 2007.