Chinese masseuse tells court of inhuman work and living conditions

A Chinese masseuse has denied being pressured into granting sexual favours to clients while testifying in a human trafficking case against the massage parlour owners.

Testifying via video conference before Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech this morning, the former bus ticket seller and qualified masseuse said her refusal to entertain client requests never led to repercussions from her employers.

She was testifying in the case against Winston Gera, 45, and his Chinese partner Zhang Tianxia, 35, from St Julian’s, both of whom are facing human trafficking charges.

Her testimony contrasted with that of other masseuses had given very different accounts.

The witness said she had paid some 50,000 renminbi (approximately €6,500) to an  agency in China to land the job.

Some of the money had to be forwarded to her future employer, the court was told, but the witness was unable to confirm this.

Gera and Zhang had met the woman upon her arrival in Malta in August and took her to the massage shop in Hamrun.

The witness said she would spend almost all her time at the shop, paying €150 monthly in rent to live in the shop which lacked beds, cooking and showering facilities.

The standard of accommodation was grim, she said, lacking ventilation or air conditioning. She would sleep on a small sofa, the witness said.

A female police officer corroborated this account, explaining that when the police had executed a search warrant at the Hamrun premises, the stuffy atmosphere and the grimy kitchenette had impressed them.

Answering a question from the prosecution, the woman recalled how, for the most part, her meals consisted of bread, which she would buy during short breaks from the shop.

Two weeks before the police raided the shop, the accused had provided the woman with a hotplate and a frying pan. 

The woman would work from 10am to 10pm, seven days a week, she said, adding that she needed clearance from her bosses to leave the shop for more than half an hour.

She would see anything from zero to eight clients a day, but only one VAT receipt would be issued per day on her employer’s instructions.

The parlour charged €25 for a massage, from which the woman said she would initially only receive €5. This was increased to €10 for each massage after she threatened to leave.

When asked by the prosecution whether she had ever performed “extra services” of a sexual nature, the woman said she did not.

Some clients did request more than a massage she added, but she had always refused and her employers had never forced her to comply with the client’s extra requests. 

She had disagreements with Gera and Zhang over her passport, claiming to have had to pay €500 to have it returned by Gera. She was also upset that she had to reimburse €491 that her bosses had paid for a blood test and insurance cover.

When these arguments erupted, the accused would threaten to cancel her Visa and have her returned to China, she claimed.

Cross-examined over her living conditions, the woman retorted “Where can I live apart from the shop?” adding that Gera had once mooted the possibility of renting a flat for all the masseuses, but that this had failed to materialize.

Asked how come she had never reported the matter to the police but had only spoken up when another masseuse filed a report, the witness explained that she was not sure how things worked out in Malta.

The woman reacted with fright and horror upon being asked by the magistrate to view the courtroom through a monitor, bursting into tears upon catching sight of Gera and Zhand.

The court once again denied bail to the accused pair due to the fact that some witnesses were yet to testify and because no extradition treaty with China existed. 

Inspectors John Spiteri and Joseph Busuttil prosecuted.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Yanika Vidal were defence counsel.

Lawyers Lara Dimitrijevic and Stephanie Caruana appeared parte civile.