KUALA LUMPUR: Mealea (not her real name) was only 17
when her older sister brought her here from their village in
Cambodia.
Her sister had promised to find her a job here.
However, her dreams of a well-paying job soon turned into a
nightmare.
On her second day here, her sister and her Malaysian brother-in-law
took Mealea and two other men to a condominium. One of the men went
into a room and her sister told Mealea to follow him.
When he asked her to take off her clothes, Mealea began to cry. The
man then contacted her sister and passed the phone to her.
"I pleaded with my sister to take me away. But she said she had
spent so much to bring me here. She told me to just shut my eyes
and endure it. She told me to do it for our mother," Mealea
said.
For the next eight weeks, Mealea had to entertain up to 12 men a
week. Unable to bear the humiliation any more, she and two other
girls escaped from the condominium where they were held captive.
They then sought the help of Tenaganita.
Mealea is one of hundreds of women and children who have been
trafficked and exploited.
According to Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez, 65 per cent of
trafficked women were forced into bonded labour while the rest into
prostitution.
Girls as young as 14 years old are victims.
Last year, Tenaganita set up a shelter for trafficked women and
children. So far, 66 women had been given shelter. Currently, there
are 14 girls at the shelter while the rest have been
repatriated.
Most of the women were from Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and
Sri Lanka.