Vietnamese police have detained a Malaysian man and a Vietnamese woman for allegedly luring young women into forced  prostitution in Malaysia. Authorities had rescued nine victims and brought them home before making the arrest earlier this month.

Ngu Weng Hie was taken in after he arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City from Malaysia, while Nguyen Thi Le Hoa was arrested in the southern province of Kien Giang, reports Thanh Nien News.

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An officer said they started looking into the case late last year when families of some victims filed reports. The initial investigation found that Hoa left Vietnam in 2012 and worked for Ngu's restaurant in Malaysia. She then returned to Vietnam a year later due to health reasons, but not before striking a deal with Ngu to provide Vietnamese women for sex work. Sex work is illegal in both Malaysia and Vietnam.

Ngu paid the equivalent of $276 for each woman, who he insisted had to be younger than 30 years old. Hoa enticed the Vietnamese women by promising to help them find jobs as waitresses and helpers for up to $900 a month, which is nearly 10 times the average income in Vietnam's rural areas.

Thanh Nien News  reports that two young women in need of work approached Hoa in August 2013. Ngu forced them into sex work at a karaoke parlor, and they would be beaten and starved if they refused to work.

Ngu and Tap Sim Boon, the karaoke parlor owner, kept half of the earnings. They would tell the women that they owed visa fees and airfares and their families had to transfer between $1,380 and $1,840 for them to come home.

According to local reports, for each sex session, the women were paid the equivalent of about $139 by their clients. However, the money had to be submitted to the bar owner Boon, who at the end of every month took out half for himself.

A senior criminal officer at the ministry told Thanh Nien News that many Vietnamese women have left their hometown with dreams of a better life overseas.

"Some women who have been rescued still want to go back, even when they know for sure they will be forced into sex work again," the officer said.

TagsVietnamese Women Preyed on for Malaysia Sex Ring, forced prostitution, Human Trafficking, sex ring, Ngu Weng Hie, Nguyen Thi Le Hoa, Tap Sim Boon, Vietnam, Malaysia