A court in Phnom Penh has provisionally charged a Japanese restaurant manager and two others with human trafficking, according to local media reports on Tuesday.
Police arrested Susumu Fukui and his Cambodian wife, Lim Leakna, on Saturday. Seng Chandy, an employee at the couple’s Phnom Penh restaurant, was also arrested, a police report said.
Police say Fukui lured no fewer than 10 Cambodian women to Japan with promises of high-paying waitressing jobs. Upon arrival, however, the women’s passports were confiscated and they were forced into sex work.
In December, one of the enslaved women made contact with the Cambodian Embassy in Tokyo via Facebook.
The embassy alerted local police, who rescued the women from a restaurant in Gunma prefecture.(dpa/NAN)