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[ Country-by-Country Reports ] PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TIER 2 WATCH
LIST) [Extracted from U.S. State Dept TIP
Report, June 2008] The People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) is a source,
transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. The majority of
trafficking in China occurs within the country’s borders, but there is
also considerable international trafficking of P.R.C. citizens to Africa, Asia,
Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America, which often occurs
within a larger flow of human smuggling. Chinese women are lured abroad
through false promises of legitimate employment, only to be forced into
commercial sexual exploitation, largely in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and
Japan. There are also many cases involving Chinese men and women who are
smuggled into destination countries throughout the world at an enormous
personal financial cost and whose indebtedness to traffickers is then used as
a means to coerce them into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor.
Women and children are trafficked to China from Mongolia, Burma, North Korea,
Russia, and Vietnam for forced labor, marriage, and prostitution. North
Korean women and children seeking to leave their country voluntarily cross
the border into China, but some of these individuals, after they enter the
P.R.C. in a vulnerable, undocumented status, are then sold into prostitution,
marriage, or forced labor. While it is difficult to determine if the
P.R.C.’s male-female birth ratio imbalance, with more males than
females, is currently affecting trafficking of women for brides, some experts
believe that it has already or may become a contributing factor. Forced labor, including forced child labor, remains a
significant problem in China. Children as young as 12 were reportedly
subjected to forced labor under the guise of “Work and Study”
programs over the past year. Conditions in this program include excessive
hours with mandatory overtime, dangerous conditions, low pay, and involuntary
pay deductions. In June 2007, a Guangdong factory licensed to produce
products bearing the 2008 Olympics logo admitted to employing children as
young as 12 years old under similar conditions. Some children, particularly
Uighur youth from Xinjiang Province, have been abducted for forced begging
and thievery in large cities. Overseas human rights organizations allege that
government-sponsored labor programs forced Uighur girls and young women to
work in factories in eastern China on false pretenses and without regular
wages. Involuntary servitude of Chinese nationals abroad also persisted,
although the extent of the problem is unclear. Experts believe that the
number of Chinese labor and sex trafficking victims in Europe is growing in
countries such as Britain, Italy, and France. The government of the P.R.C. does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so. Nevertheless, China is placed on Tier 2 Watch
List for the fourth consecutive year for its failure to provide evidence of
increasing efforts to combat human trafficking from the previous year,
particularly in terms of punishment of trafficking crimes and the protection
of Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking. Victims are sometimes punished
for unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of their being
trafficked—such as violations of prostitution or immigration/emigration
controls. The Chinese government continued to treat North Korean victims of
trafficking solely as economic migrants, routinely deporting them back to
horrendous conditions in North Korea. Additional challenges facing the P.R.C.
government include the enormous size of its trafficking problem and the
significant level of corruption and complicity in trafficking by some local
government officials. Factors impeding progress in anti-trafficking efforts
include tight controls over civil society organizations, restricted access of
foreign anti-trafficking organizations, and the government’s systematic
lack of transparency. During the reporting period, the Chinese government established
a new Office for Preventing and Combating Crimes of Trafficking in Women and
Children and released its long-awaited National Action Plan to Combat
Trafficking in December 2007, which details anti-trafficking responsibilities
implemented by 28 ministries and appoints the Ministry of Public Security
(MPS) as coordinator of the Chinese government’s anti-trafficking efforts.
However, there are no plans for resources to be allocated to local and
provincial governments for the implementation of the plan. Additionally, the
action plan covers only sex trafficking of females, and does not address
labor trafficking or male victims of sex trafficking. As host to the Second
Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) Summit
in December 2007, China joined other ministers in signing a Joint Declaration
to work together to implement the Sub-regional Plan of Action. Recommendations for
China:
Provide adequate funding to local and provincial governments to implement the
new National Action Plan; increase efforts to address labor trafficking,
including prosecuting and punishing recruiters and employers who facilitate
forced labor and debt bondage, and providing protection services to victims
of forced labor; revise anti-trafficking laws to criminalize all forms of
labor and sex trafficking, in a manner consistent with international
standards; establish formal victim identification procedures; increase
efforts to protect and rehabilitate trafficking victims; actively
investigate, prosecute, and convict government officials complicit in
trafficking crimes; conduct a broad public awareness campaign to inform the public
of the risks and dangers of trafficking; provide foreign victims with legal
alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or
retribution; and adhere to its obligations as party to the 1951 Refugee
Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including by not expelling North Koreans
protected under those treaties and by cooperating with UNHCR in the exercise
of its functions. Prosecution Forced labor remains a significant problem for Chinese at home
and abroad. During the reporting period, there were numerous confirmed
reports of involuntary servitude of migrant workers and abductees in China.
In November 2007, police in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, discovered six
migrant workers who were victims of forced labor. Police found and arrested
the trafficker several months after the case was opened. In March 2008, 33 slave
laborers from seven provinces, many of whom were mentally challenged, were
discovered locked up in a 30-square-meter room of a residential building in
Harbin. Police continued to search for the trafficker responsible in this
case. In May and June 2007, several cases of forced labor in brick kilns in
China’s Henan and Shanxi Provinces were revealed, involving over 1,000
farmers, teenagers, and children being held in confinement, subject to
physical abuse and non-payment of wages. According to news reports, brick
kiln operators claim to have paid off local officials and there are uncon-
firmed press reports that some local authorities have resold rescued children
to factories elsewhere. The Chinese government has not demonstrated concerted
efforts to investigate, prosecute, and punish government officials for
complicity in trafficking. Protection While China has made increased efforts to better identify and
protect trafficking victims through enhanced cross-border cooperation,
protection services and victim identification procedures remain inadequate to
address victims’ needs. Women found in prostitution are, in many
instances, treated as criminals for acts committed as a direct result of
being trafficked. Although the MPS has provided expanded border and police
training to help border officials spot potential trafficking victims and
assist in their repatriation, the quasi-governmental All-China Women’s
Federation reported that ongoing problems require NGO intervention to protect
trafficking victims from unjust punishment. The MPS runs three Border Liaison
Offices along the border with Vietnam, which has led to an increase in some
cross-border cooperation in victim repatriation, and opened one new Border
Liaison Office along the border with Burma during the reporting period. Local
governments in southern border provinces often rely upon NGOs to identify
victims and provide victim protection services due to the lack of resources.
Trafficking victims are generally returned to their homes without extensive
rehabilitation. All of the victims of forced labor discovered in brick kilns
were repatriated to their homes without access to counseling or psychological
care, and three victims suspected of being mentally disabled were lost by
authorities during the repatriation process. The government does not provide foreign victims with legal
alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or
retribution. Some trafficking victims have faced punishments in the form of
fines for leaving China without proper authorization. China continues to
treat North Korean trafficking victims solely as illegal economic migrants
and reportedly deports a few hundred of them each month to North Korea, where
they may face severe punishment. China continues to bar UNHCR from access to
the vulnerable North Korean population in Northeast China. Prevention |