Guyanese Women Lured Into Prostitution By Trinidad Company?

One of my Guyanese friends held out a newspaper to me today, and said, "Did you hear about these three girls?" Of course, I read his Guyana Chronicle, so I had not. But when I did, I was a bit shocked that something like this had surfaced in the media. Then I realized I was in Guyana, not Trinidad.

But from the article, 'Guyanese girls lured into prostitution by Trinidad company' (archive not available yet, will be here under July, 27th 2005), it seems like some Guyanese women headed to Trinidad and Tobago for masseuse training and instead were asked to submit to sexual intercourse for the cost of $500 TT/week - roughly $83.33 US - and that the author of the article, Wendella Davidson, had done a good job of not naming the company. They were talking around the name of the company to assure that there was no legal recourse against them. But they certainly gave me enough hints - and from those hints, I tracked the company accused of these things to Total Image Inc Ltd.

From the article:

...Three young Guyanese girls who were lured into Trinidad and Tobago under the pretext of undergoing training to be telephone operator/ masseuse are now seeking the assistance of the Trinidad and Tobago Immigration to help them retrieve their passports, tickets and other personal belongings, including clothing, to return home.

The arrangement which led to the Trinidad travel has its genesis in an advertisement aired on a popular night television programme here, with the host operating as agent for the named Trinidadian firm located in St Augustine, East Trinidad...

...According to the young woman, she and the other girls were met on arrival in Trinidad by an official of the named St Augustine company who took them to the place which was to be their home and work environment for the one-month stay.

Management also took possession of their passports and tickets, claiming they were advised to so do by the Trinidad Immigration authorities.

However, things went sour following a request by management for the trainees to have sex with their clients and they asked that they be sent back home. They were told that that would have been done at 3:00h yesterday. The young woman related that following a new development in which the company also took possession of their personal belongings, they sought the assistance of the Immigration authorities...

...Confronted by the Chronicle, the TV host explained that he was contacted by the owner of the Trinidad firm who invited him to attend a go-go dancing contest in Trinidad sometime around March or April of this year. He said that the man