KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) raided and sealed six illegal massage parlours located in a commercial centre in Danau Kota, Wangsa Maju during an operation on Thursday evening.
“These massage parlours were operating without licences and the female workers were even offering sex services,” said DBKL enforcement director Azman Mahmood.
“We also found evidence such as porn videos and numbered tags used to identify the women.
“The women offering sex services were foreigners who entered the country under tourist visas and had their passports withheld by the massage parlour owners,” he said.
Thursday’s raid by 50 DBKL officers was a follow-up operation, after several joint raids with other government agencies such as the Immigration Department, police, National Anti Drugs Agency (AADK) and Islamic Religious Department.
“We have been observing and raiding these illegal massage parlours since 2016.
“These premises will be sealed off after today’s raid. We will take court action if the seal is broken.
“If the owner wants his premises back, he will have to provide proof such as a licence or other documentation that he owns the place,” said Azman.
He said the six illegal massage parlours in Wangsa Maju were among 122 suspicious massage parlours in the city being monitored by DBKL.
“We have raided and sealed 65% of the illegal massage parlours thus far, and will continue taking action on the remaining 35% by the end of this year,” said Azman.
The raid was carried out under DBKL’s Licensing, Trade and Business 2016 Bylaw, which comes with a maximum fine of RM2,000.
Several wall partitions were also torn down as these contravened the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
“Massage parlours are only allowed to use curtains as partitions, they cannot build anything permanent,” said Azman.
