South Asia

Around 700 Pakistani women sold as brides to Chinese men

At least 629 girls and women were sold to Chinese men in two years, found out by the investigators.

Pakistani investigators have identified around 700 marginalised girls and women from across the country that was sold as brides to Chinese men for 18 months, but efforts to help them are being frustrated, sources say.

In October, a court in Faisalabad acquitted 31 Chinese nationals charged in connection with trafficking. Officials said investigations into trafficking have slowed due to Government pressure.

agents set up the rundown of 629 women from Pakistan’s integrated border management system, which carefully records travel archives at the nation’s air terminals.

The data incorporates the brides’ national identity numbers, their Chinese spouses’ names and the dates of their marriages, which happened during 2018 and up to April 2019.

The rundown of women was gathered in June 2019, when the examination came to a standstill because of pressure from government authorities, as indicated by sources who addressed the Associated Press.

The Pakistani Government has sought to curtail investigations, putting “immense pressure” on authorities from the Federal Investigation Agency chasing after trafficking networks, said Saleem Iqbal, an activist who has assisted parents with rescuing several young girls from China and kept others from being sent there.

“Some (FIA officials) were even transferred,” Iqbal said in an interview. “When we talk to Pakistani rulers, they don’t pay any attention.”

Several senior officials familiar with the events said investigations into trafficking have slowed, the investigators are frustrated, and Pakistani media have been pushed to curb their reporting on trafficking.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals.


“No one is doing anything to help these girls,” one of the officials said. “The whole racket is continuing, and it is growing. Why? Because they know they can get away with it. The authorities won’t follow through, everyone is being pressured to not investigate. Trafficking is increasing now.”

He said he was speaking out “because I have to live with myself. Where is our humanity?”

China’s foreign ministry said it was unaware of the list.
“The two governments of China and Pakistan support the formation of happy families between their people on a voluntary basis in keeping with laws and regulations, while at the same time having zero tolerance for and resolutely fighting against any person engaging in illegal cross-border marriage behavior,” the ministry said in a statement.

Large numbers of the ladies are then confined and mishandled or constrained into prostitution in China, often contacting home and pleading to be brought back.

It’s a good business

Everything except a small bunch of the marriages occurred in 2018 and up to April 2019. One of the senior authorities said it was believed each of the 629 was offered to grooms by their families.

It isn’t known how many more women and young teenagers were dealt since the rundown was assembled. However, the authority said, “it’s a good business”.

“The Chinese and Pakistani brokers make between 4 million and 10 million rupees ($25,000 and $65,000) from the groom, but only about 200,000 rupees ($1,500), is given to the family,” he said.

The official, with years of experience studying human trafficking in Pakistan, said many of the women who spoke to investigators told of forced fertility treatments, physical and sexual abuse and, in some cases, forced prostitution.

Although no evidence has emerged, at least one investigation report contains allegations of organs being harvested from some of the women sent to China.

In September, Pakistan’s investigation agency sent a report it labelled “fake Chinese marriages cases” to Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The report, a copy of which was attained by the press, provided details of cases registered against 52 Chinese nationals and 20 of their Pakistani associates in two cities in eastern Punjab province – Faisalabad, Lahore – as well as in the capital Islamabad. The Chinese suspects included the 31 later acquitted in court.

Pakistani authorities succumbed to Chinese pressure

The report said police found two unlawful marriage bureaus in Lahore, including one worked from an Islamic focus and school – the principal known report of poor Muslims likewise being targeted by brokers. The Muslim religious leader has escaped.

After the exonerations, there are different cases under the steady gaze of the courts including one captured Pakistani and basically one more 21 Chinese suspects, as indicated by the report shipped off the state head in September.

In any case, the Chinese respondents in the cases were conceded bail and left the nation, say activists and a court official.

Activists and human rights workers say Pakistan has tried to keep the human trafficking of young girls quiet, so as not to risk Pakistan’s inexorably close financial relationship with China.

China has been a resolute partner of Pakistan for quite a long time, especially in its touchy relationship with India. Beijing has given Islamabad military help, including pre-tested nuclear devices and nuclear-capable missiles.

Today, Pakistan is getting huge aid under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a worldwide undertaking pointed toward reconstituting the Silk Road and connecting China to all edges of Asia.

Under the $75bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, Beijing has guaranteed Islamabad a rambling bundle of infrastructure development, from street development and power plants to agribusiness.

The demand for foreign brides in China is rooted in that country’s population, where there are roughly 34 million more men than women – a result of the one-child policy that ended in 2015 after 35 years, along with an overwhelming preference for boys that led to abortions of female fetuses and female infanticide.

A report released this month by Human Rights Watch, documenting trafficking in brides from Myanmar to China, said the practice is spreading.

It said Pakistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea and Vietnam have “all have become source countries for a brutal business.”

“One of the things that is very striking about this issue is how fast the list is growing of countries that are known to be source countries in the bride trafficking business,” Heather Barr, the HRW report’s author.

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