Four Thai women forced into prostitution after being tricked by pimps to travel to Bahrain for phantom jobs are on their way home, according to the Gulf Daily News newspaper said.
The newspaper quoted a Thai Embassy spokesman as saying that the women were likely to return to Thailand on Monday or Tuesday.
Two are reportedly injured after jumping from a second-floor apartment in Bahrain to escape the brothel where they were imprisoned.
“Investigations are still under way in regards to these women’s individual cases,” the newspaper quoted the embassy official.
“It is the embassy’s job to protect its citizens and we are very concerned about this problem involving the exploitation of Thai women.”
Four Thai women forced into prostitution after being tricked by pimps to travel to Bahrain for phantom jobs are on their way home, according to the Gulf Daily News newspaper said.
The newspaper quoted a Thai Embassy spokesman as saying that the women were likely to return to Thailand on Monday or Tuesday.
Two are reportedly injured after jumping from a second-floor apartment in Bahrain to escape the brothel where they were imprisoned.
“Investigations are still under way in regards to these women’s individual cases,” the newspaper quoted the embassy official.
“It is the embassy’s job to protect its citizens and we are very concerned about this problem involving the exploitation of Thai women.”
On April 21, Piyachat Rurmwattana and Veeranuch Somwung, both aged 26, reportedly jumped from a second-floor flat apparently used for prostitution during a vice raid.
Ms Rurmwattana suffered a broken leg and Ms Somwung received a back injury.
They spent several days in a Bahrain medical centre but, “They are fit enough to travel and they will be accompanied by two other women, who were also lucky to escape” from the brothel, the embassy spokesman said.
Authorities in Thailand have said they are working to bust a network of pimps who promise women good paying jobs in Bahrain, only to turn the women into prostitutes after they arrive.
The network is said to have grown so much that female pimps from Thailand have already established themselves in Bahrain.
A former prostitute, who only gave her name as Uoom, was quoted by the newspaper today as saying she was lured to Bahrain as a sex worker and managed to escape with two of her friends.
She said she and her friends, Bao and Tong, both married and in their 30s, were recruited by a female pimp, or mamasan. The pimp, named Sofia, was reportedly based in Bahrain and recruited the women in Pattaya.
The spokesman confirmed that the three women approached the embassy for help last month and that the remaining two were currently staying at the embassy’s shelter.
“This matter is still under investigation, but we hope to send these two women along with the women who jumped (from the apartment building) home this week,” he said.
“They are not going to court because we have not been able to locate the said mamasan. “We have informed the Bahrain authorities that we think the best thing to do is to let these two women go,” the spokesman told the Gulf Daily News.
“As for the mamasan, we have informed the police about her and they are trying to arrest this woman. “She is still at large and we are not sure if she had already left Bahrain.”
The embassy does not have a record of how many Thai women are being forced into prostitution in Bahrain, but the spokesman said it knew of some who were being kept by their pimps against their will. There are about 4,000 Thais working different jobs in the country.