PHNOM Penh immigration police are questioning 10 Chinese women and two male compatriots over their involvement in running two massage parlours that offered sexual services. The 12 were detained by district police on Tuesday.

Por Sen Chey police made the arrests after raids on two businesses in the district’s Chaom Chao commune, while the parlour’s owner, a Chinese woman, escaped.

Sar Samnang, deputy municipal police chief in charge of immigration, said on Wednesday that the suspects were being questioned by his team before being sent to court.

“The suspects are still being questioned so I cannot say when they will be sent to court. We need to wait until the interrogations are complete and we receive an order from senior authorities,” he said.

Por Sen Chey district governor Hem Darith told The Post on Wednesday that the district police and local authorities had investigated the parlours for months before carrying out Tuesday’s raids.

“The businesses had signs advertising massages, but they secretly offered sexual services,” Darith said.

Authorities cracked down on the two parlours in Chaom Chao III commune’s Prey Tea village and 10 women who allegedly offered sexual services and two Chinese men described as supervisors were arrested.

Condoms were also found, he said.

Darith said the parlours, owned by a 50-year-old Chinese woman who had fled, had been operating without a licence.