African students earn RM7,000 monthly through prostitution at luxury condo

By Kumara Sabapatty

KUALA LUMPUR – Unlike the usual busts, where African students were involved in love scam, the raid on Platinum Suits in Kuala Lumpur found that these students were involved in prostitution.

These female students have been providing sex services to their compatriots and the locals since the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March last year. They only chose discreet and loyal clients.

Their nomadic system of moving from one hotel to another luxury residence with the maximum stay of two weeks to avoid from being detected by the authorities did not last long. The Immigration Department (JIM) monitored their activities through intelligence and undercover for four months since September has brought to their arrest.

Director-General of Immigration, Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud said that this was also the first operation in three years since he led the JIM where the immoral activity involved African women.

During the raid on two units of residences at the 39^th floor of the service apartment in Bukit Bintang, six African women in their early 20’s were arrested for prostitution. The four women from Tanzania and two from Uganda turned condominiums and apartments in the elite area as their headquarters for prostitution.

“Meanwhile, five of them are students. Four of them are pursuing their studies at the same college in Taman Shamelin Perkasa, Cheras, meanwhile, another student is a language student at Subang. The other woman has overstayed using a social visit pass.

“The modus operandi of these women was via WeChat. They required advance booking and the payments will be made into their account or via cash.

“Most of their clients were from the Klang Valley and they came from various backgrounds, including students.

“Based on our intel, the African students charge between RM500 to RM600 per night and they can earn between RM6,000 to RM7,000 per month.

“Most of their clients are from the Klang Valley involved various backgrounds, including students,” he told the journalists when met at the location of raid last night.

Khairul Dzaimee added, the JIM also arrested four clients in their 30’s. One of them was a local while three others were Africans.

According to Khairul Dzaimee, all of them were detained at the Temporary Immigration Detention Centre and they will be expelled out to their home countries. They will also be permanently banned from entering Malaysia in the future.

The JIM will also check their attendance record from their colleges as all women are students from private institutions.

“I have also contacted the relevant agencies that manage international students admission. We will hold further discussion to implement tighter requirements on the citizens whom we have identified to originate from high-risk countries.

“We will also investigate as there must be certain individuals who manage the immoral activities involving them. They also confessed that they used luxury condominiums and service apartments in the city as their headquarters for prostitution to avoid being detected by the authorities.

“Our investigation also found that they don’t live in those luxury apartments. On the contrary, they rent them for a period of time, according to the demands from the location before migrating to another luxury accommodation with the monthly rental of RM2,500 to RM3,000,” he said.

Khairul also informed the premise owner about the activities of the African women and they have been identified for further investigation.

“One of the African woman arrested for prostitution tonight admitted that she has overstayed since March 2020. Meanwhile, five other students have been here since 2019,” he said.

He said, all six women and four male clients have been remanded for 14 days under Rule 39(B) Immigration Regulations 1963 and Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63. – MalaysiaGazette