19 women rescued from forced prostitution
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) – Nineteen women were freed from a massage parlor where they allegedly had been forced into prostitution, police said yesterday.
West Midlands police said the women, who were from Latvia, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Poland, were rescued Thursday in a raid on the Cuddles massage parlor in Birmingham.
Police arrested a 40-year-old English woman and three men, whose ages were not immediately released, on suspicion of being concerned in the management of prostitution.
Police said the women’s passports had been taken, and that they were locked into the massage parlor at night and kept captive in a house during the day.
Police and immigration officials planned to interview the women later in the day, West Midlands police said.
