Torture in [China] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [China Street Children in [China] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [China] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early
years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/China.htm
The People’s
Republic of China (PRC) is a source, transit, and destination country for
men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and
sexual exploitation. Although the majority of trafficking in the PRC occurs
within the country’s borders, there is also considerable trafficking of PRC
citizens to Africa, other parts of Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle
East, and North America. Women are lured through false promises of legitimate
employment and forced into commercial sexual exploitation largely in Taiwan, Thailand,
Malaysia, and Japan. Chinese women and men are smuggled throughout the world
at great personal financial cost and then forced into commercial sexual
exploitation or exploitative labor to repay debts to traffickers. Women and
children are trafficked to China from such countries as Mongolia, Burma,
North Korea, Russia, Vietnam, Romania, and Ghana for purposes of forced
labor, marriage, and sexual slavery.
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Xinhua News Agency, July 25, 2007 www.christiantoday.com/article/china.arrests.nine.for.human.trafficking/11849.htm [accessed 28 January 2011] Chinese police raided
a human trafficking ring and arrested nine people for kidnapping and selling
children in northwestern and central The traffickers
snatched more than 20 children and sold some in Hongtong county in the northern
province of Shanxi, where kidnapped teenagers and children were found working
as slaves in brick kilns in a widely publicised scandal, the Xinhua news
agency said. Xinhua said two of
the kidnappers, Wang Aizhong and Li Caimei, tricked kids to get on to their
motorcycle on their way to school or broke into houses to snatch babies. The refugees forced to be sex slaves in
China Richard Spencer in [accessed 28 January 2011] The women who flee Agence France-Presse AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gAWwX-jr-WWym9HprucUN_WLGAYQ [accessed 28 January 2011] Police have
arrested 18 people suspected of kidnapping children and women in southwest Trafficking of
women and children remains a problem in China with many sociologists blaming
the nation's "one child" family planning policy for fuelling the crime. Under the policy, aimed at controlling the
world's largest population of over 1.3 billion, people who live in urban
areas are generally allowed one child, while rural families can have two if
the first is a girl. This has put a
premium on baby boys, while baby girls are often sold off as couples try for
a male heir. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61605.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Internal trafficking was a significant problem. Ministry of Public Security
(MPS) statistics show that during the first 10 months of the year, there were
1,949 cases of trafficking involving women and children. Over this same
period, there were 3,574 women and children rescued compared with 8,949 women
and children rescued in 2004. Some experts
suggested that the demand for abducted women was fueled by the shortage of
marriageable brides, especially in rural areas. The serious imbalance in the
male-female sex ratio at birth, the tendency for many village women to leave
rural areas to seek employment, and the cost of traditional betrothal gifts
all made purchasing a bride attractive to some poor rural men. Some men
recruited brides from poorer regions, while others sought help from criminal
gangs. Criminal gangs either kidnapped women and girls or tricked them with
promises of jobs and higher living standards, only to be transported far from
their homes for delivery to buyers. Once in their new "family,"
these women were "married" and raped. Some accepted their fate and
joined the new community; others struggled and were punished; a few escaped. Kidnapping and the
buying and selling of children continued to occur, particularly in poorer
rural areas. There were no reliable estimates of the number of children
trafficked. Domestically, most trafficked children were sold to couples
unable to have children; in particular, boys were trafficked to couples
unable to have a son. In 2004 media reported arrests in the case of 76 baby
boys sold in Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
30 September 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/china2005b.html [accessed 29 January 2011] DATA
COLLECTION -
The Committee regrets the limited statistical data on sexual exploitation and
cross-border trafficking included in the State party’s report, both with
regard to mainland Police free 16,517 women and children from
human traffickers in Beijing,China John Burger, [accessed 29 January 2011] MY TAKE ON THE STORY - The main problem
with combating traffickers in Freeing 16,517
slaves is a BIG deal. Arresting nearly 16,000 suspects is huge in the fight
against traffickers. What happens to these suspects and the number that that
are prosecuted will determine the greater long-term effect these arrests will
have against human trafficking. With a major bust like this in Taking Down Child Trafficking Rings Web Editor: english.cri.cn/8706/2010/09/26/2041s596417.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Zhao Xiaoyi was
another suspected human trafficker the police seized in the recent crack
down. In the police interrogation room, the man sounded remorseful. "When I broke
into the room, I could see the despair, the terror in her eyes. I will never
forget the way she looked at me. I didn't dare to look back. I just couldn't
look at her." Zhao Xiaoyi was
describing how a mother looked when he broke into her home and abducted her
baby. It was on the afternoon of December 16, 2009, and Zhao and four of his
accomplices knocked on the door of Ms. Shi's home on "I heard
someone at the door and I asked who it was. He said he was a neighbor and
wanted to borrow some kitchen ware." Ms. Shi opened the
door, holding her ten-month-old baby in her arms. "Immediately
as I opened the door, three men broke in. They pushed me inside. One of them
covered my mouth while the other two held me down to prevent me from moving.
I was terrified. I pleaded them to take anything they wanted except for my
baby. All they wanted was my baby. I tried to stop them but they beat me and
tied my hands and feet. Then they wrapped my baby in a piece of cloth and
vanished." In broad daylight
Zhao had broken into Ms. Shi's home and taken her baby. Three Chinese jailed for human trafficking www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=164179 [accessed 29 January 2011] Summing up its
judgment, the court noted that the prosecution had been able to prove its
case beyond reasonable doubt. It held that James and Sam engaged in human
trafficking by obtaining tickets and other travelling documents for the
victims and through deceits, lured them to Ghana to work in a restaurant,
which never existed. According to the
court the victims on their arrival had their passports and other travelling
documents confiscated by James who in turn threatened, deceived and exploited
their vulnerability. According to the court proceeds of the sex trade were
used to purchase contraceptives, douches and other materials to facilitate
their trade. It dismissed claims by the convicts that the victims and other
Chinese nationals meet at the restaurants to sing. "During the singing
that was when the men selected the victims for sex," the court noted. It therefore
concluded that the convicts through their intentions induced the victims into
sex trade and declined to give them their travelling documents as well as
proceed from the sex trade. Original reporting in Cantonese by Ho Shan
and in Mandarin by Xi Wang, Radio Free Asia RFA, 2009-05-21 www.rfa.org/english/news/china/chinatrafficking-05212009114049.html [accessed 29 January 2011] But parents in the
southern city of Nanning said 200 children were still missing in their
region, and police had prevented parents from staging a public protest to
draw attention to the problem. DEMAND FOR CHILDREN - She said boys
were often sold to people as sons, while the girls ended up filling a
traditional rural role, that of daughters-in-law who are raised in the same
household before marriage to one of the family's sons. NK Defectors Describe Horrors of Human
Trafficking The Dong-A ILBO, May 01, 2009 english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=060000&biid=2009050137348 [accessed 29 January 2011] Bang Mi-sun, who
came to the South in 2004, spoke first. She said she fled the North to feed
her two children after her husband starved to death in 2002. “I thought that if
I went to China, I could eat heartily and lead a better life than in North
Korea. What waited for me was a wretched life,” she said. “I was sold to a disabled Chinese man for
585 dollars at a human trafficking market and resold to another man.” Bang was caught by
Chinese police and repatriated to North Korea. There, she was subjected to
severe corporal punishment and forced labor.
“I was put in a detention camp and flogged. I was battered so badly
that I cannot walk well now,” she said. Trafficking victims try to remake lives Monica Rhor, Associated Press AP, Houston,
April 13, 2009 www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/04/13/0413trafficking.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Like dozens of
other workers from Human trafficker sentenced to death in
China www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24817125-5005961,00.html [Last access date unavailable] The traffickers had
promised their victims jobs packaging tea and sunflower seeds, even taking
them to "a fake factory where the ring members pretended to be managers
and workers", Xinhua said. The
victims were then sent to other provinces on the pretence of purchasing raw
materials, but were sold as "wives" to local people, the agency
added. Officials crack down on human trafficking
ring Central News Agency CNA, Oct 10, 2008 www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/10/10/2003425457 [accessed 29 January 2011] The National
Immigration Agency (NIA) recently cracked down on a Taiwanese human
trafficking ring that was smuggling children from In its
investigation, the agency discovered that the crime ring had bought the
identity of Taiwanese children from parents who were in financial difficulty. The parents sold
their children’s IDs for NT$90,000 each, the agency said. The investigators had discovered that the
crime ring employed the strategy seven times in the first half of this year,
smuggling 18 children to the US. Police foil human trafficking in Golden
Triangle www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/12/content_7297128.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] The migrants,
hailing from villages near The migrants, who
have now been sent back to their villages, were brought to Yunnan with
promises of jobs but were being tricked to cross the border by casino
operators in Myanmar, where they would be forced to construct roads, an
unnamed official was quoted as saying. Burmese brides for sale Way Yan, Mizzima News, Ruili, 28 October
2008 www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1208-burmese-brides-for-sale.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Wah Wah was one of
the women that Ma Phyu and her gang had sold into slavery. Wah Wah was sold to a Chinese man living in
Sandong, near Beijing, at the price tag of Chinese RMB 20,000 (approximately
US$ 2,900). A few weeks later, Wah Wah managed to flee from the clutches of
her buyer and made her way back to Ruili earlier this month. The hapless young lady had nowhere else to
go but to return back to her perpetrators, and Ma Phyu was happy when her
commodity arrived back in her hands for resale. However, when she tried to
sell her to another Chinese man, Wah Wah vehemently refused. But the traffickers, having already struck
a deal and received some advance money, tried to force Wah Wah to accept her
newest companion. As dusk fell over
Ruili on that fateful day, Wah Wah was taken by taxi along the road to
Namkhan, Burma, a few miles away. Accompanying her in the vehicle were
several members of the human trafficker's family. Eventually, they stopped the taxi next to a
paddy field beside the highway in the vicinity of Man Heiro, still in Burmese
territory and about 20 miles from Ruili.
"Before leaving Ruili, they were drunk with beer. She was taken
to a paddy field near the highway. Then Kyaw Swa started raping her. After
that, Bo Bo stabbed her repeatedly. She died from five stab wounds. Then her
corpse was left in the nearby drainage," recalls a source from the
Chinese police investigation team of the incident. Behind the scenes in Beijing Catherine Sampson, Guardian, 3 August 2008 www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/03/china.olympicgames2008 [accessed 29 January 2011] At the bottom of
the heap are the street children. At a residential school, I met some of the
children plucked from the streets. An 11-year-old boy who preferred that I
call him by his English name, Nicholas, told me that he had lived with his
younger brother and older sister in Henan. His father was frequently in
trouble and a mother was both pitifully poor and unable to cope with her
uncontrollable children. One day the boss of a beggar gang arrived scouting
for children. He offered the mother 3 yuan (20p) per day per child if she
would allow him to take them away to beg, which she did. He said he would
hand over this money in a lump sum once a year at Chinese New Year. During the months
that followed, Nicholas said, he earned between 100 and 600 yuan per day
(between £7 and £40) for his boss. Nicholas kept trying to run away. When the
boss beat his younger brother for not earning enough, Nicholas swore at his
boss. Because of this, when the boss took the children home at spring festival,
he gave Nicholas' mother only 30 yuan (£2) for her son's labour. - htsc Birth Controlled: Juli Weiner, Huffington Post, July 14, 2008 www.huffingtonpost.com/juli-weiner/birth-controlled-emchinas_b_112530.html [accessed 29 January 2011] The film
investigates human trafficking panoramically, following everyone from the
traffickers themselves (both reformed and active), parents searching for
their kidnapped son, parents trying to sell their daughter, a boy who himself
was kidnapped, and the detective who's working a seven month old case with
few clues, no witnesses, and no leads. But the most pervasive of any facet of
the trade is the furtive Chinese government, which does everything in its
(far-reaching, for sure) power to silence the families of over 70,000
children a year who are being "snatched from the streets." Agence France-Presse AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gAWwX-jr-WWym9HprucUN_WLGAYQ [accessed 28 January 2011] Police have
arrested 18 people suspected of kidnapping children and women in southwest Trafficking of
women and children remains a problem in China with many sociologists blaming
the nation's "one child" family planning policy for fuelling the
crime. Under the policy, aimed at
controlling the world's largest population of over 1.3 billion, people who
live in urban areas are generally allowed one child, while rural families can
have two if the first is a girl. This
has put a premium on baby boys, while baby girls are often sold off as
couples try for a male heir. Talk outlines risks in international
adopting Ashton Shurson, The Daily Iowan, Issue
date: 3/25/08 Section: Metro At one time this article had been archived and
may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] In November 2005,
police in Organ trafficking: a fast-expanding black
market IHS Jane's Information Group, 05 March 2008 www.janes.com/news/publicsafety/jid/jid080305_1_n.shtml [accessed 29 January 2011] Children rescued from human-trafficking
gang Xinhua News Agency, Xichuan, Henan
Province, 2008-01-03 www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-01/03/content_6368154.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] "The gang
members had abducted nine children, all boys between two and eight years old,
since April, and sold them to rural families," said Wang Jianmin,
Nanyang Municipal Commission of Politics and Law secretary. He told Xinhua the family gang was led by
Ye Zengxi, 55, his son and daughter-in-law. Also involved was Ye's brother Ye
Xiaolin. The gang used Ye's 12-year-old nephew to lure other children away
from their parents' view with toys or food, and then whisked them away by
motorbike. Eight of the children were
sold to rural families who wanted boys, while another was held captive
awaiting a buyer before the police rescue. Action plan to fight human trafficking
finalized www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/13/content_6317457.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Ministry figures
show that about 2,000 to 3,000 cases of women and children being sold are
reported to police across the country every year. The International Labor
Organization estimates the number of trafficking victims in China ranges from
10,000 to 20,000 a year. Those trafficked
are usually victims of sexual and labor exploitation; and the issue received
particular attention after the exposure of a brick kiln slave labor scandal
in Shanxi Province this summer. Official figures in
August showed that 1,340 people, about 400 of whom were children or mentally
handicapped, had been rescued from forced labor since June, many of them in
Shanxi. Du Wednesday
reiterated that there would be zero tolerance for the crime and called for
more cooperation among neighboring countries as trafficking is an
international issue. Last year, 209
people who were trafficked to China were repatriated to Vietnam and Myanmar,
according to the ministry. Girls and women in Yunnan Province and the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region also face the risk of being abducted to neighboring
countries such as Thailand for sex exploitation. Ben Blanchard, Reuters, www.reuters.com/article/idUSPEK11308820071212 [accessed 29 January 2011] There has been a
rise in trafficking cases involving Trafficking in China Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office to Monitor
and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Congressional Human Rights Caucus
Briefing, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] Early this summer
reports emerged of over one thousand farmers, teenagers and children,
including some who were mentally handicapped, forced to work for little or no
pay in scorching brick kilns, enduring beatings and confinement in worse than
prison-like conditions. This was a form of modern day slavery that shocked
not only the international community, but prompted an outcry among Chinese
citizens and a forceful reaction from the authorities. The trade of women
and girls for sexual exploitation is another clear trafficking challenge for
the Chinese government. Although prostitution is illegal, the burgeoning
illicit sex industry creates a vulnerability for sex trafficking. Women and
children are trafficked into the country from North Korea, Vietnam, Burma, Mongolia,
and Thailand. Chinese women are also trafficked abroad for sexual
exploitation. The government's main challenges in this area include their
punishment of victims, poor victim protection services, and lack of
transparency in criminal law enforcement by not fully disclosing what the
government is doing to enforce laws against TIP. Human trafficking documentary premieres in
Beijing humantrafficking.org, October 04, 2007 --
Adapted from "Human trafficking documentary premieres in www.humantrafficking.org/updates/715 [accessed 29 January 2011] In Goff said one of
the most important underlying causes for human trafficking was 'demand'. 'The demand that we all represent for
cheaper and cheaper consumer products and labor and the demand for paid sex,'
he said. Gang trafficking over 60 babies cracked Xinhua News Agency, www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/07/content_6090460.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Lang also confessed
that they usually buy a baby girl at 1,500 yuan (US$200) but sell it for
8,000 yuan, while a baby boy usually costs them 8,000 yuan and can fetch
20,000 yuan for them. Investigations
found that the gang of human traders headed by Shen and Lang have bought 27
newborn babies in Yunnan during 16 trips and then sold them in Shandong. Forty out of more than 60 babies who were
trafficked by the gang have been rescued by police so far, while police were
trying to find the others. Human trafficking www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-09/06/content_6085316.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Cases of forced
labor and sexual exploitation have been on the rise, posing a threat to
social stability and our nation's welfare.
In a worst scenario, hundreds of migrant workers and under-age people
were found in June having been trafficked to work in illegal brick kilns in
Shanxi and Henan provinces. The plight
of those victims drew much concern from the government and the society, and
triggered a massive national crackdown on illegal brick kilns. Panel set to target human trafficking www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-09/04/content_6077823.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] The government
plans to set up the first national mechanism for combating trafficking to
protect women and children from forced labor and prostitution. The joint effort by 21 ministries -
including the ministries of public security, labor and social security,
education and supervision - aims to provide sustainable and long-term
solutions to human trafficking. It
will be led by a leading group reporting directly to the State Council, Yin
Jianzhong, a senior official of the anti-human trafficking office of the
Ministry of Public Security, said.
Meanwhile, the National Plan of Action on Anti-trafficking of Women
and Children (2008-12), which is being drafted, will be unveiled by the end
of this year, Yin said. More forced into prostitution, labor www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/27/content_5444409.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Forced labor and
sexual exploitation have increased as the trend in human trafficking in The number of
forced laborers and the sexually exploited has risen partly because of the
loopholes in the legal and labor systems, he added. The Criminal Law on human trafficking
protects women and children only and leaves out grown-up and teen males. It
doesn't have provisions for punishing those trafficking people for forced
labor or prostitution, Yin said. Xinhua News Agency, July 25, 2007 www.christiantoday.com/article/china.arrests.nine.for.human.trafficking/11849.htm [accessed 28 January 2011] Chinese police
raided a human trafficking ring and arrested nine people for kidnapping and
selling children in northwestern and central The traffickers
snatched more than 20 children and sold some in Hongtong county in the
northern province of Shanxi, where kidnapped teenagers and children were
found working as slaves in brick kilns in a widely publicised scandal, the
Xinhua news agency said. Xinhua said two of
the kidnappers, Wang Aizhong and Li Caimei, tricked kids to get on to their
motorcycle on their way to school or broke into houses to snatch babies. 'Alarming' Trade in Human Organ Trafficking Reuters, archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/7/112524.shtml?s=os [accessed 29 January 2011] The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) expressed alarm on Thursday over rising
cases of trade in human organs in Reed said many
trafficking cases in Asia "end up in situations of forced begging,
delinquency, adoption, false marriage, or most recently, as victims of the
thriving trade in human organs".
He said trafficking for organs was on the rise in China and in many
impoverished states in Southeast Asia, like Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. Group works to rescue victims of human
trafficking Khun Sam, BurmaNet News, 2 Mar 2007 [accessed 29 January 2011] Currently, we are
trying to rescue three women who disappeared after being lured to jobs in
China,” Ja Awng told The Irrawaddy on Friday. According to Ja
Awng, 26-year-old Maran Hkawn, a mother of three children, and 37-year-old Ma
Lum, a mother of four children, who both lived in the village of Mung Baw,
Namdu Township, northern Shan State, were lured by a job offer from a Chinese
national to work in a restaurant somewhere near the border and left for China
in June 2006. Since then the two have disappeared and neither of their
families know their whereabouts. Another 23-year-old
Kachin woman, Mun Ja of Kutkhai Township, who worked at a Chinese restaurant
in a village near Rulli in Yunnan Province, disappeared in early January this
year along with the owners of the restaurant. Vendors reportedly said the
owner had taken the woman to another location in China. Ja Awng said many
human trafficking cases take place on the China-Burma border. She said the
KWA rescued two victims last year. The KWA and the KIO gave 8,000 yuan (US
$1,032) to Chinese police to rescue a 3-year-old Burmese girl from a Chinese
house in a village near Rulli, she said. Victims of Human Trafficking Speak The Dong-A ILBO, December 15, 2006 english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2006121564548 [accessed 29 January 2011] WOMEN WHO ARE SOLD
INTO SLAVERY
- Ms. G (age: 26), a former nurse from the North who made it across the
border to Protecting young women from human
trafficking in Viet Nam Steve Nettleton, UNICEF, LANG SON, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/vietnam_37406.html [accessed 29 January 2011] In 1991,
Phuong was lured to the border by traffickers and taken against her will to “I didn’t know how
old he was or the name of the place we lived,” she said. “I lost my freedom.
I had to go everywhere with his family or else I was locked in a room. I had
to work hard. When I was tired or sick, they didn’t let me stop working. Lien Chau, Thanhnien News, August 28, 2006 www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=19385 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] Trafficked young
girls have been forced into the sex trade or forced to marry older men. Vietnamese and Chinese police raided more
than 30 human trafficking gangs in July and August alone this year. Three Women Arrested in Muse for Human
Trafficking Narinjara News NN, 7/23/2006 www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=797 [accessed 29 January 2011] According to
confirmed sources, some human trafficking syndicates have been dispatching
young women from Xinhua News Agency, July 13, 2006 english.people.com.cn/200607/13/eng20060713_282517.html [accessed 29 January 2011] The Chinese
government announced Wednesday it has submitted for approving a plan to fight
human trafficking to meet its obligations to a 2004 agreement among six Asian
countries. At a meeting in
Beijing of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking
(COMMIT), Wan Yan, a member of the COMMIT China office, said, "We have
submitted the action plan and are awaiting approval. If passed, the plan will
help to clarify the responsibilities of all the relevant ministries in
combating human trafficking." The governments of
China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam adopted a comprehensive
and strategic Sub-regional Plan of Action to jointly combat human trafficking
in 2004, under which member states each devise a national plan of action. More co-operation needed in war on human
trafficking At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] Reviewing the human
trafficking trend in the region, While in the past
women and children have been reported as trafficked victims, Thatun said that
boys and men have also been identified as victims as well into the sex trade,
heavy labour, begging, marriage, and the fishing industry. VN, Le Hung At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] More than 550
Vietnamese women and children were trafficked to The police said the
victims were deceived by members of organised crime gangs in both countries
who promised them good jobs in big cities in Viet Nam or abroad. But many of
them ended up being sold to brothels in China. China for global cooperation to fight human
trafficking 2006.06.06 [access information unavailable] Xinhua News Agency, news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/07/content_4517342.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Since the signing
of the historic COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding in Yangon, Myanmar in
October 2004, by Ministers of the six countries, the Governments have been
active in laying the foundation for a network of cooperation to stop
traffickers and prosecute them, protect victims of trafficking and assist
them return safely home, and launch efforts to prevent others from sharing
the same fate. Secret Chinese Concentration Camp Revealed Brian Marple, The Epoch Times, Mar 10, 2006 www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-10/39083.html [accessed 29 January 2011] The Epoch Times was
granted an in-depth interview with the journalist described in this report. A
former Chinese journalist that worked for an overseas television station has
revealed in an interview the existence of a secret concentration camp
dedicated to the persecution – and possibly organ-harvesting – of Falun Gong
practitioners. The violent machine Harry Wu, Founder & Executive Director,
Laogai Research Foundation, New Internationalist #337, August 2001 www.newint.org/features/2001/08/05/violent/ [accessed 29 January 2011] As a survivor of 19
years’ imprisonment in a Chinese labour reform camp, a mechanized system for
physically, mentally and spiritually crushing human beings, I feel compelled
to investigate and decry them. History dictates that all authoritarian
regimes must maintain a mechanism to suppress political dissent and
consolidate control. In China today this is the Laogai – an institution of
fear, control and modern-day slavery. From the Mandarin, the word ‘Laogai’
translates literally as ‘reform through labour’ and describes a system of
forced-labour camps spanning China from the highly industrialized
prison-factories of the eastern coastal cities to the isolated, fenceless
farms of the west. Combating Human Trafficking in Abraham Lee, Testimony before the
Congressional-Executive Commission on www.cecc.gov/pages/hearings/2006/20060306/AbrahamLee.php [accessed 29 January 2011] III. REFUGEE
VULNERABILITY
- The combination of extreme hunger, potential economic opportunity and
easier access motivates refugees to abandon family and risk their lives to
enter Combating Human Trafficking in Ambassador John R. Miller, Testimony before
the Congressional-Executive Commission on www.cecc.gov/pages/hearings/2006/20060306/JohnMiller.php [accessed 29 January 2011] Ms. Cha went to
look for work in China’s One Child Policy Exacerbates Slavery,
Panel Concludes Monisha Bansal, Cybercast News Service CNS
News, March 07, 2006 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] The Chinese
government is making progress in combating human trafficking, but its
one-child policy is still responsible for a gender disparity that is
encouraging Chinese men to purchase young women from The refugees forced to be sex slaves in
China Richard Spencer in [accessed 28 January 2011] The women who flee Trader denies recruiting workers for
prostitution John Ravelo, www.saipantribune.com/newsstory.aspx?cat=1&newsID=50015 [accessed 29 January 2011] Barry said all the workers
were promised legitimate jobs with a pay rate of $7 per hour. When they
arrived, though, the defendant allegedly made them work as prostitutes.
Although the women wanted to leave, they were reportedly forced to stay, as
the defendant told them they have no way of settling their debts and
purchasing airfares back to Facing the future with 40 million bachelors Hamish McDonald, Correspondent in www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/09/1078594367697.html?from=storyrhs [accessed 29 January 2011] China already has a
significant problem in trafficking of women and girls, internally and from
countries such as Burma. Many North Korean women who flee to China are
captured by gangs and sold as brides to Chinese farmers. Boys are also kidnapped and sold to
families without male heirs for adoption.
Police said they had freed 42,215 kidnapped women and children in the
past two years. How Can I be Sold Like This? Donna M. Hughes, National Review, July 19,
2005 www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/trafficking_nk_refugees.pdf [accessed 29 April 2012] Women and children
are increasingly the majority of refugees crossing the river into Border police rescue 37 in anti-human
trafficking drive Xinhua News Agency, www.humanrights-china.org/news/2005-7-13/2005713104306.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] The women were
saved thanks to a joint operation between Guangxi and Labor And Global Affairs Harry Kelber, The Labor Educator, February
25, 2005 www.laboreducator.org/strikebag.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] [scroll down] STRONG EFFORT NEEDED
TO GAIN CHINESE WORKER RIGHTS - CECC Roundtable Panelists Discuss Issue Of
Forced Labor In China's Laogai Laogai Research Foundation LRF, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] When a product is
labeled "Made in Activists decry brutal Chinese factories,
WalMart, Nike sited Gay Alcorn, Reuters, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 31 August 2011] The report, Made In
China, investigated 16 companies including Nike, the world’s largest
retailer; Wal-Mart; and Timberland. At
a Qin Shi factory where Wal-Mart handbags were made, undercover investigators
found young women working up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week for 3 cents
an hour, and almost half were in debt to the company because of deductions
for board. Most workers were young
women, with a Nike contractor in a Lizhan factory advertising for females
only, age 18-25. Complaining about conditions or getting pregnant led to
sackings. American partners are more
than willing to look the other way, Mr. Wu said. Program Launched To Stem Kidnapping Of
Girls Xinhua News Agency, news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/04/content_2547796.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] A new program to
prevent the kidnapping of Chinese girls and young women with the purpose of
exploitation in labor has been inaugurated in Louisa Lim, BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4232231.stm [accessed 29 January 2011] The report says some of the babies had been abandoned by their parents, but increasing numbers of children are also being abducted - particularly from migrant worker families who cannot afford childcare. The Protection Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/china.doc [Last accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - As a result of Seduction, Sale
& Slavery: Trafficking In Women & Children For Sexual Exploitation In
Jonathan Martens, Maciej ‘Mac’ Pieczkowski,
Bernadette van Vuuren-Smyth, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Regional Office for Southern Africa, At one time this article had been archived and
may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - The major findings may be summarized as follows: Triad-linked Chinese or Taiwanese agents recruit Chinese women by promising work in Chinese-owned businesses in South Africa, or the prospect of studying in English language schools. Women may even pay to be smuggled out of China. When recruited to work in Chinese-owned restaurants, clubs, or on fishing vessels in South Africa, they are forced into sex work indefinitely. If they come to South Africa to study English, they are often allowed to complete their courses before being told that they have a US$12 500 debt that they must repay by doing sex work. In either case, these Chinese women have no freedom of movement, and their traffickers take their earnings. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/china [accessed 26 June 2012] Human Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 29 January 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DS706 .C489
1988 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cntoc.html [accessed 29 January 2011] www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/11/content_399387.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Xinhua News Agency, June 2, 2004 www.china.org.cn/english/China/97138.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] A few hours after
she was trapped by human traffickers, Chen Jing was able to see through their
plot, sought help from police and escaped.
The 15-year-old girl from Renshou county in the outback of the
southwestern Sichuan Province told Xinhua in an interview Tuesday that a
booklet had taught her how to tell devils from the kind-hearted and how to
help herself in case of emergency. The
booklet, which tells in simple words and vivid pictures how rural girls
should protect themselves from human traffickers, is compiled by the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), All-China Women's Federation and the
Ministry of Public Security and is provided for free to country girls like
Chen Jing who want to find a job in cities. "I sensed
danger when I was escorted to a train with an unknown destination, and was
told they would keep my documents and money for me -- the booklet says human traffickers
always do that," said Chen. The
alert girl managed to borrow a cell phone from a stranger, reported to the
police and was saved before the train started. "I just followed the instructions in
the booklet, and was lucky to survive," said Chen, who has just found a
job as housemaid for an urban family in Chengdu. Human Trafficking an Increasing Problem in Han Qing, Radio Free en.epochtimes.com/news/4-3-16/20435.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Human trafficking
of women and children in More Than 200 Children Missing in The Epoch Times, Translated from the
Chinese Edition, May 14, 2004 en.epochtimes.com/news/4-5-14/21423.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Since 2001, almost
200 children, mainly boys aged between one and six years old, have gone
missing in Slave Labor in Falun Dafa Clearwisdom.net, 2002 to 2009 clearwisdom.net/emh/129/ [accessed 29 January 2011] [ Links to articles
re: Forced labor camps in Slave Labor Experience at Forced Labor
Camps uygurletter.blogspot.com/2004/03/slave-labor-experience-at-forced-labor.html [accessed 29 January 2011] I profess not to
know a great deal about either the Falun Movement, it's practices or
treatment by officialdom but I did find this first hand experience of a Falun
Dafa practioner inside Chinese jails rather an eye opener. Not because it
demonstrates the lack of rights afforded political prisoners as I think we
all know that exists but for the forced labour being used to produce goods
for "free world" companies. WHAT I'M READING TODAY: State Department
Report on Human Rights Practices 2003 Adam Hersh, Globalize This! -- posted
February 26, 2004 plec.blogspot.com/2004/02/what-im-reading-today-state-department.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Here's what I found
out about what is going on in Slavery, Prostitution Effect of LifeSiteNews, www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030908.html [accessed 29 January 2011] "Such serious
gender disproportion poses a major threat to the healthy, harmonious and
sustainable growth of the nation's population and would trigger such crimes
and social problems as abduction of women and prostitution," Li said.
His predictions are already reality -- police there freed more than 42,000
kidnapped women and children in 2001 and 2002. Many were believed to be sold
for the purpose of prostitution or as slave wives. Chinese officials say they have no
intention of changing the one-child policy -- a measure put in place to
ensure the population remains below 1.6 billion until 2050. The Sky is Falling Hannah Beech, Xupu, Time Magazine, July 28,
2003 www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2047279,00.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Hundreds of girls
have been kidnapped from Xupu in the past few years, including more than a
dozen from Hu's village of barely 200. Some girls?lured into cars by promises
of candy or fancy clothes or merely a joyride to the city?are never heard
from again. Others, like Hu, eventually find their way back home. But Hu was
so traumatized by what had happened that she refused to leave her house for
more than a year after her return, spending her days sequestered in a dark
room filled with piles of coal. Finally, she fled last year to the boomtown
of Shenzhen, where she now toils in an electronics sweatshop. Although the
16-hour shifts are exhausting, they're nothing like the conditions at the
brothel, where she was forced to service a stream of men for no pay. How Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com, Jan. 11, 2003 archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/1/10/200712.shtml [accessed 29 January 2011] For years, he had
been one of the estimated 50 million blue uniformed “troublemakers” who had
worked in the camps under totally inhumane conditions. Some of them literally
worked themselves to death. The forced
labor had turned out for the American market such items as rubber-soled
shoes, boots, kitchenware, toys, tools, men’s and women’s clothing, and
sporting goods. 'GETTING WISE' - A manager at
Shanghai’s Laodong Machinery Plant, where hand tools were made, boasted that
because the U.S. Congress had recently made “quite a fuss” about the prison
camps, he and his bosses had devised a way to get around the problem. “We always go through the import-export
company,” he said, meaning they set up companies to handle the shipment of
goods. That way, as Wu explains it, “nobody quite knows where the goods came
from. Chinese Police Rescue Nine Children from
Traffickers Radio Free en.epochtimes.com/news/3-11-15/14732.html [accessed 29 January 2011] MIGRANT WORKERS'
CHILDREN TARGETED BY KIDNAPPERS - Police in the southern Chinese city of Dying to Leave Thirteen, www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dying-to-leave/human-trafficking-worldwide/china/1451/ [accessed 26 December 2010] VICTIMS - Chinese women
and children are trafficked for sexual exploitation to North America, Many
internationally trafficked Chinese men and women are also subjected to forced
labor worldwide. They typically work in sweatshops or restaurants in
slave-like conditions in order to pay off debts to smugglers. Internal trafficking
also takes place in People's Daily, September 25, 2002 www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Sep/44041.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Many of the women
are bought by farmers who cannot find wives in the normal way. But recently
the trade has taken a far more disturbing turn with women and children being
sold into prostitution, said UNICEF official and senior project coordinator,
David Parker. The so called
"Elimination of Trafficking: Zero Tolerance Plan," which is set to
last four years, will seek to find an effective working system to eliminate
the "demand market" of population marketing through education, case
reports and crackdowns, said Zhu Yantao, an official with the Ministry of
Public Security. Harsh Chinese Reality Feeds a Black Market
in Women Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times,
June 25, 2001 www.vachss.com/help_text/archive/reality_feeds.html [accessed 29 January 2011] When a man offered
Feng Chenyun temporary work in another city, she jumped at the chance. Barely
literate and desperately poor, Ms. Feng had two children, 10 and 16, and it
was nearly impossible to scrape together school fees from her small plot of
rice and rape seed. Her husband was
working as a migrant laborer 1,000 miles away, in Guangdong Province. At 37,
she had never left her county in Sichaun Province and was feeling restless. "I went with
him because he was offering me work," she said, recounting from her
small dark home the start of a tale that still brings tears three years
later. "I just wanted to get out and earn a bit of money." Instead, Ms. Feng
was kidnapped, drugged, placed on a train and sold for about $1,500 as a
bride to a brick maker in faraway Xinjiang Province—becoming one of the tens
if not hundreds of thousands of poor Chinese women who are sold on a black
market each year. Hannah Beech, Xicheng,Time Pacific, January
29, 2001 | NO. 4 www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2047449,00.html [accessed 29 January 2011] Girls, two-week-old
bundles with shocks of black hair, cost $25 each. Boys, traditionally
favored, sell for $50. The chicken trade, by contrast, brings in only $2 for
the plumpest fowl. In a mountainous region where drought has stymied farmers,
the baby trade is feeding citizens in a way that Yunnan province's cracked
red earth no longer can. Some mothers, who have no knowledge of birth
control, are giving up "extra" children that violate the nation's
family-planning policy. Others, from the most desperately poor villages, have
turned into full-time baby machines, squeezing out children-for-sale in the
shadows of their dirt-floor shacks. "Before, we made money by raising
pigs," says a 23-year-old woman who sold two children just days after
they were born. "But it takes a year to raise a pig and it's expensive
to feed. A baby takes only nine months and doesn't cost any money. Millions Suffer in Sex Slavery United Press International UPI, Chicago,
April 24, 2001 archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/4/23/184354.shtml [accessed 29 January 2011] Statistical
estimates indicate 300,000 women have been sold into the sex trade in Western
Europe in the last 10 years, and since 1990, 80,000 women and children from
Myanmar (formerly Burma), Cambodia, Laos and China have been sold into Thailand's sex industry. BBC News, 28 April, 2000 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/729337.stm [accessed 29 January 2011] Police in Vietnamese Women Are Kidnapped Samantha Marshall, The Wall Street Journal,
www.wright.edu/~tdung/bride_vn.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] Jobless and
destitute, Nguyen Thi Hoan felt her luck was about to change. She had just
arrived here one sultry June morning two years ago, and almost at once a
kindly woman offered her a job in a candy factory. It was a trap. Within hours, Miss Hoan was
spirited across the Vietnam-China border at Lang Son, 100 miles away, by one
of the gangs that kidnap young women and sell them to be brides in China. For several days,
the 22-year-old was trucked and traded around southern New weapons against child trafficking in
Asia International Labour Organisation ILO,
WORLD OF WORK, No. 19, March 1997 www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/magazine/19/child.htm [accessed 29 January 2011] In Child Labour Persists Around The World:
More Than 13 Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO)
News, www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 9 September 2011] "Today's child
worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in
grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious
circle", says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries
with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force
are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya,
41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24;
Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7; Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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