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 - 2000 to 2010 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 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 old.nationalreview.com/hughes/hughes200507190734.asp [accessed 29 January 2011] 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/template.cfm?page=22&year=2009&country=7586 [accessed 29 January 2011] 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 [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, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 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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Human Trafficking in [China Street Children in [China] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [China] [other countries]