By BRONWYN SELL
Shortly after dawn in an Auckland suburban street, a tiny, scared Thai woman crept from the house of a couple who were forcing her into prostitution.
While her captors were cooking breakfast, the 28-year-old sprinted away and begged a stranger to help her.
"I was very, very scared," she later told Panmure police. "I didn't look back. I just ran and ran away."
Her story has shocked Auckland's leaders and the Human Rights Commission, who fear other woman are being exploited in the sex industry.
Two weeks ago in a Bangkok hotel, the unemployed farmer's wife was promised airfares and nine months' work in a restaurant for 150,000 baht ($8148).
Hoping to earn money for her family, she scraped together a 100,000 baht down-payment, paid it to a New Zealand man aged about 50 and his Thai wife, in her mid-30s, and flew to New Zealand with them.
Yesterday, the woman's wet eyes darted around a room at the commission's Auckland office as she told how the couple turned on her when they arrived at an Auckland house a week ago. They told her she did not have a permit to work in a restaurant, but they had other work lined up - in a massage parlour.
"I was shocked," said the woman. "I am a good woman and have never worked in massage parlours or had sex with men for money."
She was taken to a woman who put make-up on her, cut her hair, gave her a short dress and black pantyhose and said she would be picked up for work at 9 am the next day.
"I was very scared and cried and cried. I didn't sleep that night," she said.
At 7 am the woman decided to escape. The couple had her passport, plane ticket and money, but she took with her photographs of them and a sheet of paper with the man's company letterhead on it to show police.
Since the woman escaped last Thursday, she has been sheltering in a safe house the police, the commission and Auckland Mayor Christine Fletcher set up last year as an escape route for women caught up in the sex industry against their will.
She is due to fly home today and is looking forward to seeing her husband again, but fears reprisals from relatives of the couple. For this reason she asked not to be identified.
Police have recovered her passport and ticket and are investigating her allegations. They say the couple may be arrested.
The commission's proceedings commissioner, Chris Lawrence, said customers of the sex industry should ask themselves whether they were encouraging exploitation.
"It tells us in our country there are some decent people as well as some right bastards," he said.
Mr Lawrence urged other women in her situation to contact the commission on 0800 4 YOUR RIGHTS (0800 496 877) or visit its Auckland office.
A spokesman for the commission, Glyn Walters, said sex-slave trafficking was an issue in our region and it was time New Zealanders took notice of it.
He said the commission could provide a safe house, a passport and flights for women who were brought here under false pretences.
Mrs Fletcher praised the woman's courage and said she had been the first to use the safe house escape route.
Detective Senior Sergeant Kevin Baker, of Auckland central police, said women were being forced into the sex industry but it was rare for them to come forward.
The woman said another young woman had made the trip to New Zealand with the couple and two others were supposed to be following.
Thai dashes from captors
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