Two Polish masseuses have accused their shop manager, a fellow Pole, of trafficking them into Malta to be prostitutes at two massage parlours.

The case came to light after one of the women filed a police report alleging she had been trafficked into the island. Her colleague then made the same allegation after the police began to investigate. Neither of the women can be named by court order.

Police Inspector Louise Calleja told a court yesterday that they arrested shop manager Katarzyna Zanieswka, 31, from Mosta after receiving a report from a woman who worked at the massage parlours in Mosta and Birkirkara.

The woman told them she had been brought to Malta specifically to work in a massage parlour doing “illegal activities” along with her colleague, who was in the same circumstances. Her colleague confirmed she too had been trafficked, the inspector said.

Standing in the dock crying, Ms Zanieswka, through her interpreter, said she was just an employee and would “clean, take money from the girls and prepare the rooms”.

She pleaded not guilty to trafficking the women, managing a brothel, living off the earnings of prostitution and making use of the massage parlours in breach of their licence.

In pleas on bail, Inspector Calleja said the women were vulnerable and needed protection and asked for Ms Zanieswka to be remanded in custody because they had no control over her movements. It was a very real possibility that she would escape from the island.

Defence lawyer Mark Busuttil said his client was a “merely an employee” and not the person the prosecution were making her out to be.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella remanded her in custody.