Foreign models rescued

Published: September 16, 2003 | 159th good news item since 2003

A 22-year-old German model has been rescued after being detained by a bogus modelling agency in a flat in southern China.

A crack team of ex-military and police officers rescued Arnika Kirsch from a flat in Shenzhen where she was held for eight days after flying to Hong Kong on a modelling assignment, according to the South China Morning Post.

Three other overseas models were held in the same flat after being brought to Hong Kong on bogus promises of modelling work and then whisked over the border to China, the newspaper said.

Ms Kirsch, from Munich, slipped out to an internet cafe and emailed her Switzerland-based agent, who then hired the hostage recovery team Curlewis and Associates to rescue her. She is now back home in Germany.

The newspaper said Ms Kirsch was flown to Hong Kong on an assignment then taken over the border to Shenzhen in southern China where she was held with the other girls, who included a 16-year-old Brazilian model.

Phil Curlewis, who led the rescue, said bogus modelling agents were bringing in foreign models and “imprisoning them in a horrible nightmare”.

The girls had their return air tickets and travel documents taken from them on arrival and were then forced to work as hostesses, escorts or prostitutes to repay their fares, visa fees and rent in Shenzhen, he said.

Shenzhen has a huge sex industry catering mostly for relatively wealthy visitors from neighbouring Hong Kong.

Ms Kirsch, who retained her own passport, was not forced into any illicit work while she was held in Shenzhen but was tailed by a van when she left the apartment, she told the newspaper.

“It was scary,” she said in a statement. “They didn’t give me a map, I didn’t know where I was, and I had no possibility to talk to anybody.”

Mr Curlewis told the newspaper: “When we picked up Arnika she was clearly deeply traumatised. Her eyes were glazed, she was unable to speak properly for three days and she said the other girls were locked up and crying the whole time.

“She seemed to be suffering mild post-traumatic stress syndrome. We asked if the other girls wanted to be evacuated but she said they were too fearful to leave.”

Mr Curlewis said the case – which he said was “technically a kidnapping” – had been referred to Hong Kong police to investigate.

Published in Rescues
See also: