The sex trade at the sprawling Bakun Dam in central Sarawak has prompted calls from various groups for the police to urgently quash it and arrest the brains behind the syndicates.

Environmental watchdog Borneo Resources Institute was among the first to come out to request the police to investigate the matter fast.

Institute coordinator for Sarawak, Raymond Abin, said he had received such complaints from Bakun villagers before.

"Residents told us that these mobile brothels would come every month, just after payday," Abin said when interviewed by the Star in Sarawak.

The paper reported today that the sex trade in Bakun involves an intricate network of urban gangsters, mobile vice syndicates and insiders at the mammoth hydro-electric dam.

It quoted sources as saying that villagers living in and around the 60,000ha site in Belaga district had known about the sex trade since 1996 when the Bakun project started.

"No one dared to speak up openly because there are gangsters involved and because the sex trade involved a complicated network that originates from outside Bakun.

Specific times, places

The source added that gangsters from urban centres, like Bintulu and Miri, would find local and foreign girls to be used as prostitutes.

"These gangsters would liaise with those who have the transport and linkages to send these girls into Bakun to serve the workers.

"Certain people, working in supervisory levels in sub-contracts and contracts in the Bakun area, would then arrange for these girls to have sex with the workers at specific places and at specific times of the month," the source said.

The report also quoted Sarawak police chief Talib Jamal as saying that the police had evidence of people bringing women for sex at the project site.