Canadian police have rescued 52 Asian and South Asian women in raids of 18 massage parlors "acting as fronts for prostitution," authorities in Vancouver said on Friday.
The overnight raids were the result of a joint investigation of human trafficking and brothels by several Canadian agencies, Superintendent Bill Ard of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told a news conference.
A total of 108 people were arrested, including 26 clients and 74 women, a RCMP statement said.
All those arrested were adults and were released on a promise to appear later in court, authorities said.
Of the women arrested, 52 were referred to victim response teams that included volunteer social workers from community agencies and women's organizations, government workers and police, police said.
As victims, the women will not be immediately deported and "can be issued temporary residency permits," Rob Johnston, enforcement director with the Canada Border Services Agency, told a televised news conference in the nearby suburb of Surrey.
Each of the women is receiving housing, clothes, food, health care and money to live on, said Susanne Dahlin, a victims services official with the British Columbia department of Public Safety and Solicitor-General.
Dahlin said social workers are also helping the women with information and legal advice.
"Victimization removes any control that a person has to make decisions for themselves," Dahlin said. "Many of these victims will have no information about the laws of the country ... they often need time and space in safety to make ... decisions."
Authorities said no names of those arrested would be released "for privacy reasons," and said the investigation is continuing.
Plans to tackle human trafficking in British Columbia, a gateway from Asia to North America, began two-and-a-half years ago, Dahlin said.
Ard said Friday's raids of massage parlors in Vancouver and the nearby suburbs of Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby and Coquitlam started in March, with a joint investigation by police, customs authorities and border agents.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not