Calls for tighter regulation of massage parlours which act as brothels have been made after a Lithuanian woman was forced to work as a prostitute. The calls were made as a 19-year-old man faces sentencing for trafficking a 21-year-old woman in Cardiff.
An assembly member and a former chief constable said police currently "turn a blind eye" to such premises.
Their call for more scrutiny of who uses massage parlours has been backed by prostitutes in the city.
Jenny Randerson AM for Cardiff Central and Keith Hellawell, former chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, spoke after Gjergj Mungiovi-Cuka, 19, of Caldicot, was found guilty of trafficking a woman who had been "bought" as a sex slave for �5,000.
 |  The police turn a blind eye to massage parlours and that's a problem because they have no regulation |
Mungiovi-Cuka faces sentence with Akil Likcami, 20, who previously admitted trafficking and controlling a prostitute. A third Albanian man remains at large.
South Wales Police have said they found similar cases while investigating the gang.
Ms Randerson said that the Lithuanian woman's case was one of a growing problem.
'Greater risk'
"I think it is one of a small number (of cases) at the moment but I am absolutely certain that it is growing and it is something that the police and all of us need to be very worried about," she said.
"The police turn a blind eye to massage parlours and that's a problem because they have no regulation because they are pretending to be something else and therefore they can set up where ever they want.
"But the police quite understandably, turn a blind eye to them because they say if they deal with that problem then they will turn the girls out onto the street where they will be at greater risk, and I would agree with that.
"Really we need to grapple with the issue, have the debate and regulate massage parlours properly."
Her comments were supported by the former chief constable of West Yorkshire Police Keith Hellawell.
"Massage parlours are an easy option at the moment, local authorities know what is happening, police know what is happening and they are really just left to their own devices," he said.
"I believe we should come in with some greater degree of regulation, control, health checks, register checks in order that we can, if nothing else, help support and save the desperate situation that many of these girls can find themselves in."
Cardiff based prostitute, Louise, echoed their calls for more police checks on massage parlours in order to protect women forced into prostitution.
"I think if the police speak to the owners and find out how many foreign girls are there and how many British girls, they would know which ones were being targeted by the pimps and they can keep an eye on those more closely," she said.
During Mungiovi-Cuka's trial, the court was told how the woman, aged 20 at the time, was taken to London from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius and "bought" for �5,000 and brought to Cardiff where she was forced to work as a prostitute.
Likcami and Mungiovi-Cuka, who had denied trafficking a woman to work as a prostitute, are due to be sentenced in three weeks' time.
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