A Quebec couple are facing human trafficking charges in a case that RCMP in Montreal are calling the first of its kind.
The RCMP is accusing a Laval couple of allegedly confining a 29-year-old Ethiopian woman to a residence and forcing her to work night and day.
RCMP spokesperson Magdala Turpin said the woman's travel documents were also confiscated.
"Police say that she was held inside the home, not allowed to leave the home by herself, that she wasn't allowed to use the phone," CTV Montreal's Annie DeMelt reported from Laval.
"She was told that if she tried to contact police that she'd be sent back to Ethiopia."
The couple is charged under a new law that came into effect in November 2005 that deals with human trafficking.
Turpin said this incident is the first time in Canada that such charges have been laid in a case of international scope.
According to The Canadian Press, the couple hired the Ethiopian woman while living in Lebanon and brought her with them when they returned to Canada.
The couple, who are Canadian citizens, used the woman as a nanny, say police.
Laval police launched an investigation after receiving anonymous tips about the Ethiopian woman's bizarre behaviour.
"They had contact with the woman and they found her behaviour bizarre," Det.-Sgt. Richard Brosseau of Laval police told CP.
"She was always confined to the home, she was never allowed to go outside (alone). When she went outside, she couldn't speak to anyone."
Nichan Manoukian and his wife Manoudshag Saryboyadijan, face charges of trafficking in persons, receiving material benefit from it and withholding travel or identity documents.
DeMelt said the maximum sentence for the charges is life in prison.
A similar case has made headlines in the U.S. after a couple from Long Island, N.Y. were arrested for allegedly imprisoning a pair of immigrant servants.
With files from The Canadian Press
