A Chinese man who claimed to be running a legitimate massage parlour near Dublin city centre recently wanted to place an advertisement in our newspaper. However, the details of the ad raised suspicions in that it failed to include a street address and gave a mobile number rather than a landline.
It was decided that the best way to establish whether or not the business was legitimate would be to book an appointment.
I called the mobile number given and was greeted by what sounded to be a Chinese woman with reasonably good English. I asked if I could book myself in for a massage but, oddly, neither was my name taken, nor an exact time established. I was merely given the complete address and informed that they were open that evening.
I made my way to the premises, which turned out to be a modest terraced house close to the Merrion Square area of Dublin (about 10-15 minutes walk from the city centre). I knocked on the door and was greeted by an attractive, modestly dressed Chinese woman in her mid-twenties.
‘Anne’ (not her real name) seemed to be the only person at home in the well-kept house, which was decorated with various Chinese ornaments and pictures. She cheerfully told me, in poor English, that a one-hour massage would cost 50 euro. When I agreed, I was escorted upstairs into a room containing what looked to be a professional massage table.
As the massage began, with soothing Chinese music playing in the background, I started to think that our suspicions may have been unfounded. It did seem perfectly reasonable that someone could run a legitimate massage business from their home and earn decent money in the process.
However, my concerns were raised again when I asked Anne how long she had been in Ireland. “Three months,” she replied. It was becoming clear that this was not her business and that she had been drafted in to work here.
When the hour was almost up, things took a seedier turn when Anne suddenly offered a variety of illegal sexual services which are too graphic to mention. She was surprised when I declined the offer, paid and left.
I called the mobile number given and was greeted by what sounded to be a Chinese woman with reasonably good English. I asked if I could book myself in for a massage but, oddly, neither was my name taken, nor an exact time established. I was merely given the complete address and informed that they were open that evening.
I made my way to the premises, which turned out to be a modest terraced house close to the Merrion Square area of Dublin (about 10-15 minutes walk from the city centre). I knocked on the door and was greeted by an attractive, modestly dressed Chinese woman in her mid-twenties.
‘Anne’ (not her real name) seemed to be the only person at home in the well-kept house, which was decorated with various Chinese ornaments and pictures. She cheerfully told me, in poor English, that a one-hour massage would cost 50 euro. When I agreed, I was escorted upstairs into a room containing what looked to be a professional massage table.
As the massage began, with soothing Chinese music playing in the background, I started to think that our suspicions may have been unfounded. It did seem perfectly reasonable that someone could run a legitimate massage business from their home and earn decent money in the process.
However, my concerns were raised again when I asked Anne how long she had been in Ireland. “Three months,” she replied. It was becoming clear that this was not her business and that she had been drafted in to work here.
When the hour was almost up, things took a seedier turn when Anne suddenly offered a variety of illegal sexual services which are too graphic to mention. She was surprised when I declined the offer, paid and left.
A combination of Anne’s poor English and reluctance to discuss her position made gathering further information on her situation extremely difficult, but the fact that it was a man that initially contacted us about placing the ad, and that the woman who answered the phone was not the one providing the ‘services’, suggests that Anne was not at the head of the operation being run from that house. Metro Eireann attempted to make further contact with the massage parlour for a response to the evidence of impropriety, but no one was available for comment at the time of going to press.
Further investigation suggests that there are a number of such ‘massage parlours’ operating around the city, many of which advertise through private advertisements on websites. Many feature just a mobile number and a general area such as ‘city centre’. When I contacted another of these suspicious-looking parlours advertising ‘Chinese massage’ I was told that in order to book an appointment I would first have to go to a certain Dublin hotel, before ringing back for further instructions.
This is a growing concern that isn’t restricted to Dublin – earlier this month the Sunday World uncovered a network of brothels operating in the Cork area. Establishing whether or not Anne or any of the other Chinese women working in these parlours have been trafficked into the country is difficult to ascertain, but a recent conference held in Queen’s University suggested that some 600,000 to 800,000 people fall victim to the modern-day slave trade annually – around 80 per cent of whom are women and girls, and half being children.
Ireland is far from immune from this horrific practice. Last month two Chinese nationals were convicted of charges relating to the murder of a Chinese woman found murdered in the boot of a car parked in a Belfast service station three years ago.
A guilty plea meant the full tale of what happened to Qu Mei Na looks unlikely to emerge, but she appeared to have travelled to Dublin alone and without anyone being aware of where she was headed, weeks before making her ill-fated trip to Belfast. We also know that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) initially believed the attractive young victim was trafficked and investigated the crime as such.
A spokesperson at the Garda press office told Metro Eireann that there were “a number of operations” investigating the area of massage parlours operating as brothels, and that it was a matter of “ongoing concern”. A detailed response was requested but not received by press time.
