KUALA LUMPUR: Mealea (not her real name) was only 17 when her older sister brought her here from their village in Cambodia.
Her sister had promised to find her a job here.
However, her dreams of a well-paying job soon turned into a nightmare.
On her second day here, her sister and her Malaysian brother-in-law took Mealea and two other men to a condominium. One of the men went into a room and her sister told Mealea to follow him.
When he asked her to take off her clothes, Mealea began to cry. The man then contacted her sister and passed the phone to her.
"I pleaded with my sister to take me away. But she said she had spent so much to bring me here. She told me to just shut my eyes and endure it. She told me to do it for our mother," Mealea said.
For the next eight weeks, Mealea had to entertain up to 12 men a week. Unable to bear the humiliation any more, she and two other girls escaped from the condominium where they were held captive. They then sought the help of Tenaganita.
Mealea is one of hundreds of women and children who have been trafficked and exploited.
According to Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez, 65 per cent of trafficked women were forced into bonded labour while the rest into prostitution.
Girls as young as 14 years old are victims.
Last year, Tenaganita set up a shelter for trafficked women and children. So far, 66 women had been given shelter. Currently, there are 14 girls at the shelter while the rest have been repatriated.
Most of the women were from Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka.