More women trafficked to China as brides

An increasing number of foreign women, mostly from the bordering countries of Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, are being abducted and trafficked into China, the China Daily reported on Saturday. These women were generally promised jobs in China or marriage to wealthy Chinese men, luring them with routes to escape poverty, said Chen Shiqu, the director of the anti-human trafficking office at China's Ministry of Public Security, in the report. Chen said the number of foreign women trafficked to China is "definitely" rising, but did not provide figures to illustrate the trend. However, according to the public security department of north China's Hebei Province, local police have rescued 206 abducted foreign brides there since April 2009. Chen told China Daily foreign brides are being trafficked by criminals both in and outside China. The traffickers tend to target women in their 20s and 30s from rural areas and use the prospect of living more affluent lives in a big city as bait. When these victims are smuggled into China by river or along obscure roads in forests or mountainous areas, however, they often find themselves sold in rural Chinese areas as brides for local villagers, with a price ranging from 20,000 (3,145 U.S. dollars) to 50,000 yuan, or even forced to work as prostitutes. The report said one 22-year-old woman from Myanmar was sold as a bride to a mentally handicapped villager in Jiangsu Province for 30,000 yuan. The girl was rescued by the police half a year later, when she reported that her "husband" often sexually abused and beat her. She was then sent back to Myanmar in July. Chinese police launched a crackdown in the border areas from July to September, seizing 53 criminal suspects and saving 52 Vietnamese women and 13 children, Chen was quoted as saying.