Bride Trafficking To China Spreads Throughout Asia. Sana’s parents said they received US$5,500, in addition to US$1,100 for marriage expenses, from their daughter’s Chinese husband. 15/2/2020. PHNOM PENH (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The trafficking of Cambodian “brides” to China has risen sharply this year with mass job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic driving more young women and girls abroad to support their families, according to two charities that help victims. “I wanted to support my parents … I am poor and I was very curious to see China. “But we have also seen women who have been trafficked for 20 years,” the advocate says. In 2019, Human Rights Watch published a heart-wrenching, exhaustive report on the China in 2016 replaced its one-child policy with a two-child policy — a change that leaves in place restrictions on reproductive rights that violate international human rights law. “I’m content as I am back in Pakistan,” Sana says. Louise was living from hand to mouth while helping her aunt sell noodle soup in the Laos capital of Vientiane, which sits on a curve of the Mekong River. The American people have a right to rest assured that they are not unknowingly buying products that fund forced labor. [They] are lured, then forcibly prostituted or trafficked to perform online sexual services that fuel a billion-dollar industry”. Myanmar and China’s bride trafficking problem Women and girls from Myanmar are increasingly being trafficked as “brides” to China. “Their families then allow these women to be married without seeing the Chinese man in person, spending time with each other and even without any preparation.”. Louise eventually got married in February last year through a marriage agency, although she is unsure about the legality of the arrangement. A study published by the Korea Future Initiative has shown how “North Korean women are uniquely vulnerable. Illicit brokers increasingly facilitate the forced and fraudulent marriage, or bride trafficking, of Chinese women and foreigners to men in China and from abroad. The announcement comes as confirmed COVID-19 infections continue to spike across the archipelago. 15/2/2020. Such calls have, however, been grounded more in ethnic reasons than concerns over women’s rights. “It’s their boyfriend, a relative or sometimes someone they met online who was offering a factory job in China. Officials in China’s Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, recently shared some data on their efforts to combat trafficking. North Korea insists there have been no coronavirus cases in the country. Louise* was in her early 20s and had few professional prospects when she was approached by a woman who told her there were great opportunities in China, the country’s northern neighbour seen as a land of technological breakthroughs and booming cities. “When these regionalist development enterprises tread on ethnic minority, indigenous and stateless communities – as they do in China and Myanmar – the displacement that results from railways, real estate and new super highways creates massive new threats for the increased possibilities of labour exploitation.”. Kidnapped and sold to human traffickers, many of these young girls end up re-sold as brides in China, a country grappling with a gender imbalance in … She has given up on her dreams of making money overseas. But “the families of such trafficked women are afraid of complaining officially”, he says. The trafficking networks span China. The trafficking of Cambodian “brides” to China has risen sharply this year with mass job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/17/world/asia/china-bride-trafficking.html Photo: AFP. “The concern here is that we will continue to see human and sex trafficking, as well as other types of transnational crime, become increasingly integrated within the region,” Yeophantong says. In addition to traditional hotspots in nations such as Vietnam and Myanmar, the practice seems to be emerging in new areas, alongside the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multibillion-dollar drive to knit together Eurasia and Africa in a myriad of economic pacts and infrastructure projects. “I was surprised that they didn’t hold it in a local church,” she recalls. Does the Joko Widodo government have nuclear aspirations? Marriages with Chinese men have also sparked controversy in Kazahkstan, where Chinese President Xi Jinping first presented the idea for the belt and road in 2013. Problems with China’s huge infrastructure and investment project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), have triggered tensions between China and some partner governments, and bad publicity over bride trafficking has sometimes complicated relations further. It was recently reported that COVID-19 related unemployment is causing an increase in bride trafficking from Cambodia to China. Once in China, they find themselves at the mercy of the brokers, who sell them for around $3,000 to $13,000 to Chinese families. This has, in turn, fuelled a demand for trafficked women from abroad to be sold as brides for Chinese men. Young women trafficked to China to be brides, dumped after they give birth, report says - CNN. Vietnam, which shares a large stretch of border with China, has long been a hotspot for the trafficking of girls to China. This Week in Asia has contacted Pakistan’s foreign ministry, the embassy in Beijing and the consulate general in Shanghai with questions for this article. Women and girls from Myanmar are increasingly being trafficked as “brides” to China. She was then taken to the suburbs of Shanghai, a city she knew nothing about. Trafficked brides heading for China The ASEAN Post Team. Once purchased they may be held prisoner and pressured to produce babies as quickly as possible. The expert says some women are aware of the risks, but feel they don’t have a better option. Many women and girls in that part of Myanmar belong to an ethnic minority that is vulnerable due to a long-running conflict and displacement in the region. “This kind of cooperation also brings along migration of Chinese workers and brokers to the region. And all of the affected countries have complicated relationships and deep power imbalances with China. “I did not have any money, could not eat what I prefer to eat and I had to follow my husband’s family.”, Louise, whose husband took her to Hebei province in northern China, was forced to stay in the house. This is achieved by labelling the child with a particular condition from which they insist the child receive medication, and or, some form of … “There are also cases of women who gave birth to a child and then are sold to another family to bear another child,” says the researcher, who is also aware of cases involving surrogate pregnancies. In China, the demand for foreign brides has become a lucrative business for traffickers. How, why, and who abducts the Brides? China Human Trafficking In June 2017, the United States of America labelled China as a Tier 3 human trafficker. The trafficking of Cambodian “brides” to China has risen sharply this year with mass job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. “And we can’t say if people ever recover completely.”. 34 million men . Ly Thi My is a Vietnamese mother whose daughter went missing in a mountainous border area between Vietnam's Ha Giang and China. In recent years, thousands of girls and women have been trafficked from Myanmar to China. Some of them are business owners,” she says. She is getting old and I would like to take care of her.”. Wuttimanop’s non-profit group has handled an increasing number of forced marriages since 2017. About For years, it was easy for China to ignore the issue. “Rather than suggest that individual acts of trafficking might grow in the light of the Belt and Road Initiative, I look at the existing structural inequality and vulnerability in the area,” she says. Officials in China’s Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar, recently shared some, At the same time, the Chinese government also seems to be responding by peddling propaganda to improve its global image. It drives more young women and girls abroad to support their families, according to two charities that help victims. *Names have been changed or shortened to protect the individuals. The Chinese government’s main response for many years seemed to be simply to ignore growing allegations about authorities’ complicity in these crimes. the “happy and pleasant road” a Myanmar woman had experienced after marrying in China. Don't be misled by the erroneous notion that China possesses some uniquely successful capacity for long-range planning. These women and girls are typically tricked by brokers who promise well-paid employment across the border in China. A presidential election in Kyrgyzstan and a parliamentary election in Kazakhstan kick off 2021 in Central Asia. “In fact, I became willing to marry Mr Liu, as I was already living in hell in Pakistan.”, Sana, now 19, used to live with her parents and two other sisters near Faisalabad, in the eastern province of Punjab, in a house without a proper sewerage system. “In particular, the [belt and road strategy] could create new modalities for trafficking in drugs, wildlife and people,” read a piece published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The rights watchdog warned these cases are "disturbingly similar to the pattern of trafficking of 'brides' to China from at least five other Asian countries." power can inadvertently shift politics even in regions like Central Asia where the United States is remote.”. She says that Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan and Vietnam have all become source countries for the trafficking of women and girls for sale in China as brides. It drives more young women and girls abroad to support their families, according to two charities that help victims. The Chinese government appears to have cooperated with Pakistani authorities to quickly arrest some suspected traffickers in Pakistan. A rise in cases of suspected bride trafficking from Pakistan to China has come amid an unprecedented influx of tens of thousands of Chinese nationals into the country. Yeophantong says more systematic data and research are needed to establish a direct connection specifically between growing Chinese investment overseas and the increasing number of women trafficked as brides into China. The first three days were okay,” she recalls. Police rescued six would-be Chinese brides from a guesthouse in the capital’s Prampi Makara district and arrested their alleged trafficker on Tuesday. Myanmar and China’s Bride Trafficking Problem. … A more expansive Chinese foreign policy after 2021 will have political and economic implications for its Western Hemispheric partners. Aung Ja* was 18 when a woman from Myitkina, northern Myanmar, convinced her to take a ‘factory’ job in China. Even being rescued is no guarantee of getting their lives back. "The source countries need to increase their efforts at resolving ... push factors such as gender inequality and poverty," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. As Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure drive expands across Asia, experts say greater regional connectivity may have an unwanted by-product, Girls and young women in the poorer countries it connects appear to be at greater risk of human trafficking and forced marriages. In June, the Ministry of Public Security, China’s police, said that in the previous year it had rescued 1,100 Southeast Asian female trafficking victims and arrested 1,322 suspects, including 262 foreigners. Human Rights Watch investigated bride trafficking from northern, into China. This gender gap has become more obvious in recent years and Chinese men have had a hard time finding wives, which feeds the demand for trafficked women from abroad. Read more. About six years ago, there was even a small protest against Kazakh women marrying Chinese men. There has been growing attention to bride trafficking in the media, and there is a growing list of home countries of victims becoming more aware, most recently Pakistan, when evidence emerged earlier this year of trafficking. My husband used to torture me physically.”. “With the Asia-Pacific accounting for half of the world’s internet use, social media and online platforms are facilitating human trafficking and exploitation on an even wider scale … [It] can be used to lure women and girls, as well as for coordinating their transport,” Yeophantong says. People see it as migrating for job opportunities,” says Myanmar-based independent researcher Ja Seng Ing, who adds that not all such brides are trafficked. Sources told the news agency that the government had sought to curtail investigative efforts because it feared hurting Pakistan’s lucrative ties to Beijing. But “other Asian countries should watch carefully to make sure they’re not the next to be added to this list”. She was rescued in 2017 and is taking part in a UN Women-supported trafficking prevention programme. The United Nations estimates that Southeast Asia’s illicit market, which includes trafficking of people, makes US$100 billion annually. Elena Shih, manning assistant professor of American studies and ethnic studies at Brown University, is researching issues on the China-Myanmar border. Louise grew up more than 3,000km from Sana, a young Christian woman from Pakistan, but they shared the same motivation in marrying a Chinese man. Credit: Rod Waddington/CC By 2.0 by Tharanga Yakupitiyage (united nations) Friday, March 22, 2019; Inter Press Service; UNITED NATIONS, Mar 22 (IPS) - This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. Those women and girls are held in sexual slavery, forced into pregnancy, or made to undergo fertility treatment. Trafficked brides heading for China The ASEAN Post Team. The one-child policy, in force from 1979 to 2015, prompted many parents to feel that if they were permitted only one child, that child should be a son. . With its first homegrown vaccine approved for general use, China aims to vaccinate 50 million people by the Lunar New Year in February. The Chinese government appears to have, with Pakistani authorities to quickly arrest some suspected traffickers in Pakistan. Combined with a continuing crackdown on women’s rights activists and civil society groups, it has become increasingly difficult for them to raise awareness and assist victims. Human Rights Watch documented extensive bride trafficking in Myanmar, where hundreds of women are transported to China only to be sold to Chinese grooms for about $3,000 to $13,000. In many cases of bride trafficking to China, Myanmar people, including relatives of the victims, play a role. They could not afford school, and usually ate only once a day. Most of the people in the bride trafficking nexus are known to victims. A study published in 2018 found more than 7,500 women mostly from Kachin and Shan State had entered forced marriages with Chinese men in the previous five years, and most were coerced into bearing children. Men in communities experiencing severe shortage of women are under strong pressure to find a bride. The consequence has been that their own governments also often show little concern about the fate of women and girls trafficked to China. Chinese firms hope to … Border regions have been most affected, with more than 120,000 people displaced by clashes between Myanmar’s military and ethnic armed groups in Kachin and northern Shan State. 1 of 4 . Once they learn Chinese language and culture, their marriages are fine.” The expert asked the participants to, “Tell your government the Chinese government is doing very good things for Myanmar women.”, A recent article in a Chinese government-funded publication in Myanmar similarly. Enjoying this article? Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, had “identified 7,000 Cambodian women living in “U.S. 26 september 2020. “While in China, I could not go anywhere,” the 22-year-old recalls. Report: Myanmar, China failing to stop ‘bride’ trafficking. Kaswar Klasra and Tomiris Urstembayeva contributed to this reporting. . But “my parents were told by an agent [a local broker] that he was rich and had businesses in China … The idea of sending some money back home pushed me to marry him.”, Sana had not met her husband before the marriage ceremony, which was held in her house. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/31/chinas-bride-trafficking-problem China has a bride trafficking problem. At the same time, the Chinese government also seems to be responding by peddling propaganda to improve its global image. When Louise landed in bustling Guangzhou, she was received by a Chinese broker who took her to a house where men would meet her, sizing her up as a would-be bride. Bride trafficking to China has been very lucrative to Chinese and Pakistani brokers, who make between C$33,000 to C$86,000 per ‘bride.’ Traffickers often target impoverished families from marginalized Christian communities, promising high-wage jobs across the border to their daughters. Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the government has tightened its grip on the media and the internet. According to a list compiled by the Pakistani authorities, 629 girls and women from across Pakistan were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China, the Associated Press reported in December. There has been growing attention to bride trafficking in the media, and there is a growing list of home countries of victims becoming more aware, most recently Pakistan, when evidence emerged earlier this year of trafficking. Over generations, China’s one-child policy drove a demographic disaster that has sparked a devastatingly cruel trade. But the trauma of her experience still lingers – in ways that not even she may fathom. While “bride trafficking” of women into China from Southeast Asia is not a new problem, anti-trafficking organizations have said the pandemic’s impact on Cambodia’s garment, hospitality, and tourism sectors has led to a significant increase of the issue. “Women have this perception from seeing Chinese men who come to work in their country. In one session, a professor explained to the visitors that the problem was not trafficking but that, as the activist recalled the explanation: “Myanmar women don’t know Chinese culture. They are also orphaned, unemployed and short of alternatives … They then decide to go to work in China [after meeting a broker].”. That is the case in Myanmar, where human rights abuses have caused widespread unemployment and displacement, triggering mass migration to China. “But then I was treated like a slave. In Pakistan, much like in other Asian countries, hundreds of Chinese men have found women to marry through agents. According to a new report by Human Rights Watch, women from Myanmar's Kachin minority are being trafficked into China, where they are sold as wives and raped until they become pregnant. Uncategorized July 5, 2020 November 30, 2020 test. But my family requested me to keep quiet.”. Laxity of government agencies in the countries of origin, with brokers being able to easily produce fraudulent documents, has also played a role. "To truly stop this trade of bride trafficking to China, prevention needs to be the priority," she said, who described the recent rescue operation in China as the biggest involving foreign trafficked women. Fuelling the demand, they say, is China’s gender imbalance. “Many survivors come back with mental issues, such as dissociation, post-traumatic stress disorder and even schizophrenia,” says Tra My, Blue Dragon’s psychology department coordinator. Then, she sought help from a friend over the phone. Experts say the rising number of trafficked women is due to a combination of this enhanced regional connectivity and stronger business ties with China, along with factors such as a lack of opportunities in the women’s home countries, where powerful networks of marriage agencies and illegal brokers extend their tentacles. Some marriages are not legally recognised, and many women end up travelling to China without having the proper documents to live there. “In many cases, the age of minors is changed to be adults, so that the girls can go to China,” Wuttimanop says. But it is a “plausible one, considering the better connectivity promised by the belt and road projects, the growing porosity of borders, as well as China’s expanding economic reach and appeal”. This enables the bride to be resold or repurchased at the buyer's discretion. That’s partly because of the phoenix embroidered on the again of her navy Adrian Gan robe, the final word symbol of yang power, which appears on customary Chinese bridal attire. The trafficking network is also embellished through Doctors and specialists, especially those brought in from foreign countries. Some are able to escape in the first few days or months of abuse. Pichamon Yeophantong, a senior lecturer in international relations and development at The University of New South Wales Canberra, says most illegal activities take place via the same routes used by legitimate trade. In June, the Ministry of Public Security, China’s police, that in the previous year it had rescued 1,100 Southeast Asian female trafficking victims and arrested 1,322 suspects, including 262 foreigners. Earn $ 3,000 to $ 4,000 for each trafficked woman had been successful in china, bride trafficking, which shares large! 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