Info sought for Malaysian woman kept as slave in London for 30 years

PETALING JAYA - The Malaysian Go­­­vernment is liaising with British authorities on the rescue of a 69-year-old Malaysian woman who was kept as a slave with two others for 30 years in London’s Lambeth district.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Wisma Putra was seeking details.

“We don’t have many details now. We will disclose more information as we get it,” he said when contacted yesterday.

The Malaysian High Commission in London has also offered to help British police in its investigations.

An official said the high commission had contacted Freedom Charity and British police.

“We are still waiting and ready to extend any help required,” he added in a telephone interview.

The official said the high commission had only found out about the matter via press reports.

“We have yet to meet or speak to the woman,’’ he said, adding that there was no information on where she was being kept.

Details regarding the case continue to be sparse, with British police being tightlipped on the rescue of the three women.

The Malaysian wo­­man, who has not been identified, was rescued along with a 30-year-old British woman and 57-year-old Irish woman on Oct 25.

The rescued women are all “highly traumatised” and are currently being looked after in a safe location. The address of the house where the crime took place is still unknown.

The Metropolitan Police arrested their two alleged captors on Thursday morning in connection with an investigation.

The two, both aged 67, have been granted bail until a date in January. According to a statement from the police, they are “not British nationals”.

The three were freed after one of the captives called Freedom Charity, an NGO, on Oct 18.

According to British news reports, Aneeta Prem, founder of the Freedom Charity, met the three women on Thursday.

At a press conference yesterday evening, Metropolitan Police re­­vealed that the three women had been beaten.

According to British media reports, the victims were physically abused and emotionally controlled in the “complicated and disturbing” slavery case.

The police were quoted as saying that they were looking for “invisible handcuffs used to manipulate the three women.”

The police also said that there was no evidence that the victims had been trafficked.

The two suspects were also charged with immigration-related offences, and were arrested in the 1970s for unspecified reasons.

Police spent 12 hours searching the property and removed 55 bags of evidence and 2,500 exhibits.

The Star