BUTTERWORTH: Some men may be marrying women from China to have them work as prostitutes.

The State Immigration Department is checking on this development following the arrest of 20 women from China, aged between 19 and 34, working as guest relations officers at a karaoke lounge in George Town on Wednesday.

One of the women, aged 25, told enforcement officers that she was married to a local man.

Department director Abdul Rahman Harun said she was attending to a customer when enforcement officers raided the place about 8pm following a five-hour surveillance.

He said the woman said her husband was in Selangor.
"We are investigating her claim.

"We are fully aware of such cases where local men marry women from China and force them into vice when they come here," he told a press conference on Wednesday.

"We believe the karaoke lounge is the place for the customers to pick up the women of their choice before they go elsewhere for sex."