Introduction to Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a version of slavery but in the 21st century. According to the International Labor Organization, there are around 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally. We will be focusing on the subcategory of human trafficking, which is bride trafficking.
SIX TYPES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Forced Labor
“Individuals are compelled to provide work or service through the use of force, fraud, or coercion” (dhs.gov, n.d.). It can result from an internal or cross-border movement that makes workers vulnerable and manipulated into a status of bondage or servitude. Many enslaved workers do not seek justice or legal help for labor violation because their income and livelihood are at stake. In many cases, they feel somewhat grateful to have a job as a refugee and do the means to provide for their family and children.
Sex Trafficking
“Actions or practice of illegally transporting people from one country or area to another for the purpose of sexual exploitation” (Oxford, n.d.). Sex trafficking begins when a perpetrator, trafficker, or pimp uses force, fraud, or coercion. This manifests as physical force, threats, psychological manipulation, and other tactics to get their victims to provide commercial sex acts or labor or services.
Organ Trafficking
“Several illegal activities, of which the main goal is to profit from human organs and tissue, for the sole purpose of transplantation” (US National Library of Medicine, n.d.). Vulnerable populations are those who have minor social and legal protection are at risk of becoming victims. 70% of women are more susceptible in areas where extreme gender discrimination prevails. Organs are sold in consequence of a gross imbalance of supply and demand.
Child Soldiers
“Any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by a state or non-state armed group and used as fighters, cooks, suicide bombs, human shields, messengers, spies, or for sexual purposes” (dosomething.org, n.d.). They are usually forced, abducted, threatened, or coerced into joining, while others may be bribed with money, drugs, or other ways. Children are often pressured to participate due to economic or social pressures.
Child Marriage
“Marriage that takes place without the consent of one or both people in the marriage. Sometimes family members will threaten or use force to make someone consent to the marriage” (U.S. Department of State, n.d.). This issue affects female victims, but research suggests that 15% of the cases involve male victims. Child marriage usually occurs because of financial or food insecurity to cultural or social norms. Children who fall victim suffer physical and mental abuse, which compromises their development and severely limits opportunities in life.
Debt Bondage
"[Victims are] tricked into working for little or no pay, with no control over their debt…the value of their work invariably becomes greater than the original sum of money borrowed" (antislavery.org, n.d.). Victims typically enter into the arrangement willingly in an attempt to pay off a loan. It differs from forced labor because more victims voluntarily engage to pay off debt rather than earn money.
Why did we pick China as our country of interest?
We choose China as a country to explore because it holds one of the highest rates of human trafficking. China has approximately 4 million individuals involved in human trafficking, with 36% being children. The United Nations estimated Asia’s human trafficking: 64% of human trafficking is for forced labor, servitude, and slavery; 26% is for sexual exploitation. China and other Asian countries lack laws to protect people experiencing poverty or in the unskilled labor force.
What is our definition of Bride Trafficking?
Bride trafficking is so significant because it is a combination of the six main types of human trafficking. There is no universal definition of bride trafficking (UNDOC, 2020). But we view it as purchasing or forcing someone to be a bride. It is a unique form of sex trafficking based on the commodification of females. Yet, it is also different because the exploitation involves trafficking that is more precisely related to the commercialization of marriage. Generally, it enables the female brides to be sold to male buyers, and its purpose is not to find a person’s love partner. However, to fulfill the need of males, buy to arrange a wife who can function for sex, birth, and domestic worker (UNDOC, 2020).
Common Themes
When talking about China, we also include their surrounding countries. This is because women from less developed countries are taken advantage of and sent to China. Although the brides trafficked to China come from various Southeastern Asian countries, some commonalities exist among vulnerable victims. The majority of victims are uneducated, belong to ethnic minority groups, live in rural areas, and are very impoverished. People fall victim to trafficking for a better outcome in life. Many are seeking refuge for a peaceful life or are evading poverty and political conflicts. They are at risk of being trapped in China and becoming recognized as illegal immigrants instead of victims, making them easily manipulated to accept their fates (Lhomme, Zhong, & Du. 2021). Due to the manipulation and many loopholes, many women are volunteering to stay in China.
How did it come to this?
China’s Child Policy and Sex-Selective
China implemented its one-child policy from 1979 to 2015 (Human Rights Watch, n.d.). The one-child policy inevitability created a sex ratio disparity. In 2010, it was 118.98 males for every 100 females, which improved 119.45 to every 100 women in 2009. This was because there has been a belief that males have more potential than females, and this policy created a gender imbalance that showed a higher preference for male babies over female babies. Furthermore, once they're married, daughters are married into the husband's family and care for his side. In China, at this time, you were not allowed to have ultrasound gender testing, so there have been cases of families abandoning their infant daughter or infanticide. At the end of the policy, parents were allowed to have two children. As of May 2021, the Chinese government allowed a three children policy.
Men struggling to find wives
Low Ratio
As a result, in China, men struggle to find wives over the decades. According to PBS, by 2020, there's an estimate of 40 million Chinese men who cannot find a Chinese bride. This led to resorting to a "brutal business of selling women and girls from neighboring countries" (Human Rights Watch, n.d.). Human trafficking impacts approximately 236 million people in China. This accounts for roughly 17% of China's population of 1.39 billion.
Traditions
Traditionally, in some areas of China, the husband has to offer financial compensation to the daughter's parents for raising her. Additionally, the daughter will have to stop working to care for her natal family and become a labor force for the husband's family. Rural poor men are likely to be unmarried because they could not find a partner, and bride trafficking has allowed males to avoid compensation for the wife's family and wedding costs.
Who are the victims
Bride trafficking has become one of the primary forms of cross-border human trafficking in the region. The Vietnamese official data estimated that more than 3,000 Vietnamese women and children were trafficked between 2012 and 2017 (Vu, 2018). Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) estimated 7,500 Myanmar Women had experienced forced marriage and childbearing to Chinese men. All these women suffered from both psychological and physical abuse (Robinson & Branchini, 2018). With this data, many unknown or unreported cases show that these values and data are just the tip of the iceberg of bride trafficking from Southeast Asia countries to China.
Foreign women often become forced brides for men in China, as well as being forced into prostitution. From an investigation done by Human Rights Watch, they looked at bride trafficking from northern Myanmar into China. It was found that brokers who promised employment in China tricked women and girls from Northern Myanmar. Once in China, brokers sell these women and girls for around $3,000 to $13,000. These women and girls are now at the mercy of brokers or owners to be part of their prisoners, impoverished communities, or refugees from another country. The majority of victims were from Myanmar. They are then trafficked to the Hanan, Anhui, and Shandong provinces.
"Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are the main sources. Fujian, Guangdong, and Shandong are the main destination provinces. Henan province is both a source and destination of human trafficking. Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are amongst the provinces with the lowest GDP per capita in China" (United Nations Inter-agency).
is escaping an option?
Many of these women and children come from poverty. They are uneducated, belong to an ethnic minority group, and live in rural areas. These women are gambling their future to improve their quality of life through marriage. They hope for a peaceful life that helps them escape their home countries' poverty and political conflicts. Though they pursue a better life, they are often trapped in abuse. Some know the risks and usually accept their fate to tactics of abusers and traffickers.
Many traffickers lie and ensure the safety of the woman to trick them into becoming a wife. Once purchased, the husband will start a family with her to trap her in raising the kids. The victims do not have a family to go to nor the ability to leave or be independent. These women are more likely to follow the customary laws or tribal practices because they are uneducated. They do not have an official marriage certificate that provides the buyers' family opportunities to take advantage of these brides' legal statuses. Then use imprisonment and deportation as threats to make them give up the idea of escaping.
Even if women do find legal help, they fear being found for illegal punishments. Being illegally transported into China, they are unidentifiable as victims of human trafficking because there is no proof of exploitation. The principle of irrelevance of consent cannot protect victims because their consent to marriage and illegal entry prevent them from telling their true stories to the police.
Now what?
What is being done?
There must be laws and policies to protect possible victims and prosecute offenders from human trafficking. Ultimately, there are still very few convictions, highlighting the gross inadequacy of enforcing those laws and policies. The UN reported that only 40% of countries said having ten or more yearly convictions, with nearly 15% having no convictions. This data shows the lack of support and attention to human trafficking and the victims.
Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore have done little to respond to the challenge of human trafficking (Global Slavery Index, 2014). In Thailand and Indonesia, they appear to have developed a more written plan but are immobilized by poor implementation and high levels of government corruption. The Philippines is making solid efforts but is limited by resources.
The Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative involves Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Other regional organizations like the Asian Development Bank and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) have human trafficking programs. But despite their good intentions, these initiatives rely on national governments for implementation and enforcement.
Our Reflection
We are unsure about a global solution because there's not one set path to take. To tackle this problem, we need to learn and resolve the root cause of this issue. China has admitted it is difficult to live to international challenges, and it would be unfair to impose one country's beliefs onto another. That being said, there is still a fundamental right or way of how humans, no matter the gender, should be treated. Ultimately we should educate everyone and address the importance of human rights.
Our solution, we think that's a start to addressing this issue to end discrimination and breaking down the stereotype and social norms. Women are responsible for taking care of their immediate family and the husband's family. They are often expected to fulfill a caretaker and leadership role for extended family and in-laws. They work twice as much as a caregiver than men while being unpaid. Additionally, women face prejudice in education and the workplace. They're often denied access or opportunity to education and independent income. The societal norms devalue women and often lead to families selling their daughters for money instead of raising their daughters.
Our solution, we think that's a start to addressing this issue, is to end discrimination. This is breaking down societal stereotypes and social norms. Women are responsible for taking care of their immediate family and the husband's family. They are often expected to fulfill a caretaker and leadership role for extended family and in-laws. They work twice as much as a caregiver than men while being unpaid. Additionally, women face prejudice in education and the workplace. They're often denied access or opportunity to education and independent income. The societal norms devalue women and often lead to families selling their daughters for money instead of raising their daughters.
Society should stop shaming women and putting unrealistic expectations upon them. But to empower women and equip them with the necessary tool to reach their fullest potential.
Take Action!
On a global scale, aspects such as educating women, influencing their role in the education system and the workplace, and affecting independence for women will help lead the world towards a more progressive way of life while still preserving the many cultures and traditions. Instead of criticizing less developed countries, we need to take a less abrasive approach to influence societal change by supporting organizations to tackle these issues. Developing national plans to combat trafficking of women and children is to cooperate with agencies and establish a national information and reporting system. Targeting to prevent and stop crimes of trafficking provides care for trafficked victims. Reevaluation of laws and regulations for workers can protect the workers who are victims of labor trafficking. Educating ourselves, measuring and supporting the prevention of trafficking, prosecution of traffickers, protection of victims, and strengthening cooperation are actions we can take to help men, women, and children worldwide. To increase diversity, we need to learn from societal conflicts that include low representation of women in leadership roles and dominant male positions in the political system, academics, and judicial system.
Resources
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking
Justice Planning & Management Associates
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
National Human Trafficking Hotline
National Sexual Violence Resource Center
Office on Tafficking in Persons
Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute
Violent Crimes Against Children
References
ASEAN Today. (2019, April 04). WeChat is giving trafficked Burmese brides a lifeline. https://www.aseantoday.com/2019/04/wechat-is-giving-trafficked-burmese-brides-a-lifeline/
Barr, H. (2020, October 28). China's bride trafficking problem. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/31/chinas-bride-trafficking-problem#.
International Organization for Migration. (2017). Global Estimates of Modern Slavery. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf
Mai, J. (2021, August 13). How XI looks to the Communist party to plug Cybersecurity gaps. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3144958/how-xi-jinping-looks-communist-party-plug-cybersecurity-gaps?module=perpetual_scroll&pgtype=article&campaign=3144958.
O'Sullivan, K. (2014, May 17). The role of women in China. Fair Observer. https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/role-women-china/.
Philipp, J. (2020, January 25). 10 facts about human trafficking in China. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/human-trafficking-in-china/.
PBS. (n.d.). China's Future with Fewer Females. https://www.pbs.org/kqed/chinainside/women/population.html
Stauffer, B. (2019). You Should Be Worrying about the Woman Shortage. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/global-0#
Qiu, G., Zhang, S. X., & Liu, W. (2019, February 18). Trafficking of Myanmar women for forced marriage in China. Crime, Law and Social Change. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10611-019-09826-9.
UNIAP. (n.d.). UNIAP: No-trafficking.org: The Trafficking situation in China. UNIAP | no-trafficking.org | The Trafficking Situation in China. https://web.archive.org/web/20110305053908/http://www.no-trafficking.org/china.html.
Zheng, T. (2013, August 19). China: Sex Work and Human Trafficking (Part 1). Fair Observer. https://www.fairobserver.com/region/asia_pacific/china-sex-work-human-trafficking-part-1/
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