By Lin Meilian
Three Eastern European women in Shanghai were deported after they served jail time for prostitution, police told the Global Times Wednesday.
The three women, all from unidentified Eastern European countries, spent 15 days in detention, and five of their clients, all Chinese, were fined 500 yuan ($73) each. Two Chinese men who served as their agents, were also arrested.
"Their actions will leave a bad influence on society and have violated Chinese law," said a police officer surnamed Zhang from Shanghai's Entry- Exit Administration Bureau.
The officer said the women were expelled from the country after serving their time, and they might not be able to re-enter since they violated the law.
Prostitution is illegal in China. The sentence for those found organizing prostitution is 10 years or even life.
The three foreign women, between 20 and 30 years old, came to Shanghai after they were lured by the promise of "high-paying jobs" last September.
Police caught them last month working as prostitutes in a hotel located on Sinan Road.
The two Chinese agents, who remain in police custody, were paid 1,600 yuan ($234) each from customers every time.
Zhang said women from some Eastern European and Southeast Asian countries are increasingly coming to Shanghai to work in the sex industry.
In a separate development, police in Guiyang, Guizhou Province detained 18 people for allegedly forcing women and underage girls into prostitution, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
The police said 15 school-age girls, the youngest aged 12, were kidnapped from outside of their schools and forced by the gangs to work at bath centers by gangs.
Guizhou and Guangdong police rescued 10 girls and detained 10 people in Zhongshan, Guangdong and held another person in the neighboring province of Fujian.
The youngest person detained was just 15 years old.
Last June, police in Guangdong Province cracked a prostitution ring and rescued four Vietnamese teenage girls who were kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Six suspects were arrested.