The police last weekend raided a massage parlour and entertainment lounge and interrogated over 30 people in its renewed drive to clamp down on human trafficking across the island.

The owner of the establishment, 31-year-old Gormechyo Green, along with Alisea Rainford, 31, and Sheena Willis, 20, were arrested and charged.

Green is charged with living off the earnings of prostitution, Rainford is charged with aiding and abetting and living off the earnings of prostitution, while Willis is charged with soliciting for immoral purposes.

The police also held onto Shamyel Morgan, 31, who is charged with murder and had absconded his bail in June.

Reports are that between 11:00 pm and 6:00 am an operation was carried out at Oasis Lounge located at 2B Downer Avenue, Kingston 5.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Victor Barrett, who led the operation, told the Jamaica Observer that undercover police personnel who went to the premises discovered that several women were offering sex for sale.

Barrett said that Green, who was the receptionist collected $2,000 from one of the undercover policemen. He was then instructed to choose a woman and Rainford was selected, the senior police officer said.

“There is a receptionist who collects money, then the patrons are told to choose a girl and they venture off into a private room and I leave the rest to your imagination,” Barrett told the Observer. “The money is then written down in a book and handed over to management.”

The raid came a week after Head of the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) Assistant Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey disclosed that focus will be placed on human trafficking and breaches of intellectual property (IP) rights as the Yuletide season approaches.

According to Barrett, over 200 patrons representing both sexes were at the premises. Thirty-one of them were taken to CTOC for further interviews and 28 were released.

The operation came on the heels of an investigation involving the owner.

Barrett said that the premises is licensed as a massage parlour and entertainment lounge.

According to Barrett, the victims are lured by advertisements in the print media for work which, he said, is not a new phenomenon.

The ASP said that when the victims respond to the advertisement and turn up for interviews they are abused and held against their will.

“The push factors for human trafficking are poverty and an abusive or neglectful home environment,” Barrett reasoned, adding that the high demand for forced labour or sexual exploitation are pull factors.

According to the 2017 Trafficking In Persons Report by the US Department of State, Jamaica is and has been a source and destination country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.