PHNOM PENH – Seven Cambodian women have been rescued from a restaurant in Japan where they were allegedly forced into sex work after a victim made a desperate Facebook plea for help, an official said Wednesday.

The women, who are in their 20s, were lured to work at the restaurant in central Honshu in November with promises of high wages by a Japanese owner who arranged visas and airfares for them, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry said in a statement

“But (he) threatened and forced the victims to have sex with guests at the restaurant and did not pay them salaries,” the statement said.

Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said the women were rescued in mid-December after a victim wrote a plea for help on the Facebook page of the Cambodian Embassy in Japan.

Japanese authorities in Gunma Prefecture were then alerted.

Six of the women are now staying at the Cambodian Embassy in Tokyo awaiting repatriation on Thursday while the seventh victim was sent home last month for health reasons.

Cambodian officials did not say if the Japanese restaurant owner was arrested or faced any charges.

Japan has long been a destination for women from Southeast Asia seeking higher wages. Some find themselves forced into sex work or indentured labor.

Last August the Philippines warned its citizens against illegally traveling to Japan in search of work, saying they often risked being trafficked for sex or forced labor.

Washington’s annual report on human trafficking says Japan remains a “destination, source and transit” country for human trafficking despite a recent increase in prosecutions.

“Traffickers strictly control the movement of victims using debt bondage, threats of violence or deportation, blackmail, passport retention, and other coercive psychological methods,” the State Department’s 2016 “Trafficking in Persons” report says.