TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A Vietnamese woman, who came to Taiwan as a tourist but has been working in the sex trade, was caught hiding in a brothel wardrobe raided by police in southern Taiwan's Tainan City last week, reported Apple Daily.
As part of a raid on three brothels in Tainan City last week, the woman was caught off guard and tried to hide in a wardrobe before she had a chance to put on clothing. She was one of nine Vietnamese woman arrested at three locations that day for engaging in prostitution while visiting Taiwan on a tourist visa.
A 45-year-old Vietnamese woman surnamed Nguyen (阮), who married a Taiwanese man and has lived in Taiwan for 20 years, has opened three "erotic health centers" in Tainnan and has taken advantage of the New Southbound Policy to recruit women from Vietnam, offering them "one month of pay for a day's work." Nguyen has allegedly been posting photos of the young women on social media to drum up business, eventually drawing the attention from authorities.
National Immigration Agency received a tipoff and sent a report to the Tainan District Prosecutor's Office to direct an investigation. On Jan. 8, the Tainan Investigation Bureau, together with Tainan's Shanhua and Yongkang Precinct police carried out a raid on the three erotic massage parlors.
Woman hiding in wardrobe. (Image from Tainan Police Department)
At the three brothels, officers arrested a total of nine Vietnamese women, all of whom had come on visa waivers under the guise of sightseeing, but in fact had been engaging in the sex trade. Nguyen was arrested on charges of violating the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) and Act on Offenses Against Sexual Morality (妨害風化罪).
NIA officials said that the main suspect, Nguyen, had a criminal record of trafficking and was promoted from sex worker to head of a prostitution ring. She then set up the three Vietnamese "health centers" on her own and recruited children of relatives and friends in Vietnam to work in the massage parlors.
As soon as the women were brought into the country through the visa waiver program, they would strike seductive poses for professional photographs, which were then edited and used in advertising their services on LINE groups. In the social media groups they offered sexual services ranging from NT$1,200 (US$38) to NT$2,000.
Another Vietnamese woman arrested by police. (Image from Tainan Police Department)
The team raided all three of Nguyen's parlors simultaneously, first controlling the front desk, before breaking through hidden doors and entering the individual suites where the clients were distributed to. When officers caught a masseuse and her client engaging in sex, a woman in a neighboring room panicked and leaped into a wardrobe while still fully nude.
When officers entered the room, they found the nude woman cowering inside the closet, trembling and unable to speak. Among the nine women arrested, the youngest was only 18 years old.
The women told police that they averaged five or six clients a day. At the scene police seized more than NT$580,000 in cash, as well as 3.1 million Vietnamese dong (NT$4,121).
Advertisment of masseuse posted on LINE. (Tainan Police image)
Advertisment of masseuse posted on LINE. (Tainan Police image)
