BANGKOK: Chonburi immigration officers led by Pol Col Naphatphong Khositsuriyamanee raided a house in Takhian Tia subdistrict, Bang Lamung district, Chonburi province, with local police, tourist police and district officials at about 10pm on Tuesday (Sept 22).
They acted after Yingyot Sae Yang said a Chinese woman had messaged him that she was being held and feared she might be harmed.
At the house, a foreign man looked out through a curtain and fled inside on seeing the police.
Officers entered after hearing a woman cry for help and rescued Lina Lu, 32, Yifan Xing, 24, and Luojin Liu, 21.
All three were exhausted, frightened and crying.
Yifan had bruises on her body.
The women gave matching accounts, saying they had been held in a room, their phones had been seized and passwords changed to prevent outside contact.
They said the phones had been used to make transactions to transfer money out of accounts, and that they had been threatened with physical harm and sexual assault if they refused to comply.
Officers also detained Hany Ang Liu, 31, Lan Liang Feng, 25, Xiao Jia Bin, 25, and Deng Shunzhi, 22.
The first three had no passports and admitted entering Thailand without official checks via natural border crossings in Tak and Sa Kaeo.
Deng had a valid passport.
All four were charged with unlawfully detaining the women, while the first three also faced charges for entering and staying in Thailand without permission.
They were handed over to investigators at Bang Lamung Police Station. - The Nation/ANN
