Claims by a Filipino singer featured in a recent NBC documentary that she was held against her will while working in Penang has been disputed by sources.

The Star reported today cited unnamed sources saying there was no evidence that Lannie Erecito, 22, was treated as such and she had problems at work and often skipped practice lessons.

"It is learnt that this led to her agent holding back her salary but she was still 'free' to do as she pleased.

However, the sources said Lannie apparently had a Filipino boyfriend whom she preferred to be with rather than earning a proper salary.

"She must have been angry with her agent and made up the story of being held against her will.

"Sources said had she been held against her will, she would not have been able to telephone her uncle, Troop Edmonds, in the United States," the report read.

No complaint from Lannie

According to the 30-minute Dateline programme , Lannie had sent a distress call for rescue to her American uncle, 'Troop' Edmonds last year.

Edmonds (left), with the help of a retired Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) friend, Jerry Howe, with the Dateline crew in tow, flew first to Philippines.

They discovered that Lannie and 15 other Filipinos were sent to Penang as singers and when they can't sing, they were forced into prostitution.

According to the news report, the sources said the Americans had met then state deputy CID chief Supt Razali Basri and told him they had information where Lannie was being 'held'.

The sources also said that had Lannie indicated in any way that she was being forcefully held, the police officer would have arrested her agent.

She was later released by her alleged captures with help from the police and returned to the Philippines after the agent agreed to return her passport, they said.

The reported added that Penang CPO Koh Hong Sun said he would order a thorough probe into the allegations highlighted by the documentary.

Blacklist

NBC's Dateline programme aired on Aug 8 detailed the dark web of collusion between the Malaysian law enforcers - the police and immigration officers - and the human traffickers.

"The State Department says that human trafficking and the sex trade it fuels are rampant here. Yet in all of 2006, not a single trafficker was prosecuted," said Dateline correspondent Chris Hansen.

Two months ago, Malaysia was blacklisted by the United States for the first time for its failure to take concrete action against human trafficking.

Malaysia joined other offenders - among them, Burma, North Korea and Sudan - in the US State Department's annual 'Trafficking in Persons Report'.

In all, 16 countries were given the so-called 'Tier 3' status in the 236-page survey of global efforts to combat human trafficking, which makes these errant nations eligible for US economic sanctions.

For Malaysia to be removed from the US' blacklist, the "government needs to demonstrate stronger political will to tackle Malaysia's significant forced labour and sex trafficking problems," said the US State Department.

In April, in the bid to improve Malaysia's record on human trafficking, the government approved a milestone anti-trafficking bill which introduces a 20-year jail sentence for offenders.

Grim tale of sexual slavery in Penang