The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry plans to set up a shelter home in Kuching for foreign women who are victims of human trafficking for the sex trade.

Its minister Rohani Abdul Karim yesterday said the allocation for setting up the shelter had been provided and the ministry was now looking for a suitable location for the shelter.

Speaking to reporters after closing the Women and Law Forum in Kuching, she said at the moment, the nearest women's shelter was located in Sabah and foreign women rescued from the sex trade in Sarawak were sent there.

Rohani said two other such shelters were in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru where foreign women sent to the shelters went through rehabilitation and training before being sent back to their countries of origin.

She said their duration of stay at the shelters depended on the time taken for them to be rehabilitated and for their countries to bring them back.

- Bernama