Police in Malaysia's Penang state have confirmed reports of rescuing 27 Bangladeshis from what they called was an attempted human trafficking operation.
Police said that the rescued Bangladeshis were in the country without work permits and had photostatted copies of their passports.
They informed that each of the Bangladeshis had forked out RM 15,000 each to work in Malaysia, but were left jobless and in a state of starvation.
Police said that the Bangladeshis had arrived in the country through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on February 2 and had been ferried first to Shah Alam and then to Johor Baru and finally to Penang.
All of the rescued are said to be aged between 20 and 40 years.
According to the state-run Bernama news agency, police have arrested three persons involved in the human trafficking operation.
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The raid was conducted on two houses in the Taman Sungai Puyu area of Penang state.
The skinny and listless Bangladeshis had been padlocked for almost two months, police said.