A Thai woman formerly living in Japan has been extradited and charged with human trafficking following the dramatic escape of a woman who claims she was duped and forced to work in a brothel.
EXTRADITED: Malee Laoyang, who is facing human trafficking charges in connection with a forced prostitution case in Japan, was brought in front of the press by anti-trafficking police yesterday.
The Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTD) arrested Malee Laoyang, 31, following a complaint by a Thai woman who claimed that Ms Malee lured her to Japan and forced her to work in a brothel in Tochigi prefecture on Honshu island.
The alleged victim escaped from the brothel earlier this year and sought help from the Thai embassy and Japanese authorities before returning to Thailand.
Japanese police charged Ms Malee, from Chiang Mai, with illegal prostitution and entering Japan illegally.
AHTD commander Pol Maj Gen Chavalit Sawaengphuet said Ms Malee, 31, is accused of luring the woman to work as a waitress in a karaoke bar in Japan in October last year, telling her she would earn up to 100,000 baht a month.
The woman went to Japan to meet Ms Malee. She said Ms Malee and her gang claimed she owed them 2.7 million baht and forced her to work as a prostitute to pay the debt. Ms Malee denied the charges.
AHTD police also arrested two suspects in a sting yesterday at an apartment in Samut Prakan and charged them with procuring underage girls for prostitution.
Police received a tip that the suspects were procuring girls in Bang Phli district's tambon Racha Thewa. The suspects are Sithikorn Warunprapha, 18, and Wiphawan Ngamlamai, 20, both from Bang Phli.