Police raid parlour using Thai prostitutes

By Tony Wall

Police and immigration officials yesterday swooped on a Fort St brothel managed by a man who admits he encourages Thai women to Auckland to work as prostitutes.

The morning raid on Lipstix massage parlour came as city leaders prepare to announce measures to help Thai women trapped in the sex trade.

Auckland mayor, Christine Fletcher, plans to comment today on the meeting that followed revelations in the New Zealand Herald that Thai women have been lured to Auckland for restaurant jobs and forced into the sex industry.

Lipstix manager Mike Hall - who openly recruits Thai girls - says if authorities want to stamp out abuses they should shift the focus of any crackdown.

Rather than rounding up women working in parlours illegally he wants them granted work permits. He says this would help stop the market in the unsupervised illegal rap parlours and private outlets which take business from legitimate parlours and force him to use "illegal" girls.

In the raid yesterday, one woman was taken into custody for immediate deportation to Thailand and two others were served with removal orders for working while in New Zealand on a visitor permits.

Mr Hall said the raid had virtually forced him out of business because he had no more "stock."

Police seemed to be looking for sex slaves during the raid, he claimed, but police say the visit was "routine."

Mr Hall had earlier invited the Herald to his three Fort St parlours to prove no girls were "locked away." Two Thai women were sleeping in rooms used for sex, but Mr Hall said this was because they did not want to go home to the suburban address they shared with several other Thai workers.

He said he did not ask the women if they were under contract, but it was possible they paid their earnings to Thai nationals.

Mr Hall, who has a Thai wife, makes about four trips a year to Bangkok. When he goes to bars and clubs he encourages young women to come to New Zealand, but says all are either already in the sex trade or want to be. None was held against their will.

Mr Hall said he had just last weekend declined a Thai couple's approach to put their 18-year-old to work in Lipstix. This was because the girl seemed unhappy at the suggestion, he said.

Meanwhile, anti-child prostitution organisation Ecpat NZ allege New Zealand police in Bangkok are dithering over investigations into three New Zealanders reportedly involved in trafficking women.

Spokeswoman Denise Ritchie said she rejected police claims the trio could not be prosecuted here. She said the Crimes Act allowed for it.