Sunday, December 4, 2011

WOMEN: Trade in SE Asian Women to Chinese Criminal rings

Increase in women smuggled into China, sex slaves or sold as wives
The young girls come from various countries of South-East Asia, including Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos. Attracted by the promise of a job by criminal groups, they are sold into prostitution or as wives. The phenomenon is the result of one-child policy imposed by Beijing, which has caused enormous gender disproportion.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An increasing number of girls and women from South-East Asia enter China clandestinely, to be forced into prostitution or sold to men who force them into marriages, the official China Daily newspaper reports, according to a study prepared by the Department against human trafficking, of the Ministry of Public Security. The document does not publish the figures of the emergency, which remain secret, but the reality is that the phenomenon is a direct result of Beijing's policies on births - including the infamous one child law - that has led to the huge imbalance between the sexes in China today.

Chen Shiqu, the director of the Department against human trafficking, reports that "the number of foreign women who illegally entering China is growing." Most of them come from poor rural communities in Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar and are victims of extortion at the hands of international criminal groups, which attracts them with the promise of lucrative jobs or marriages to wealthy Chinese men. They enter the country, and are sold as wives to villagers, or forced into prostitution in brothels or on the coast of Guangdong and Yunnan provinces.

The sale price is between 20 thousand Yuan (just over 3 thousand dollars) up to 50 thousand Yuan, depending on the nationality and area of origin. Many of the women from the South-East Asia are transported to the northern province of Hebei, to then be sent on to the capital Beijing. Public security sources report that since 2009 a total of 206 women who had fallen into the network of traffickers in human lives, were freed.

The one-child policy promoted by Beijing caused the elimination of female foetuses and the killing of newborn girls, and this silent massacre, endorsed by the authorities, has led to a deep imbalance of gender in China, so that an increasing number of men are travelling to North Korea to find or "buy" a wife among the women caught up in the international crime racket. According to UN estimates, today the country of the Dragon, there are 118.1 males per 100 females, and the world average, however, reaches about 105 boys per 100 girls.