bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Kaswar Klasra

Rabia Bibi considered herself the luckiest woman on Earth when she tied the knot with a Chinese man living in Pakistan.
Her parents gave her away during a respectable wedding ceremony in January at Gujranwala, 95km from Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore.
Soon afterwards the couple left the country for a new life in China. Sadly, the marriage would not last. Rabia, 22, became the victim of persistent physical abuse at the hands of her new husband, which eventually prompted her to seek refuge at a local police station.
She made contact with Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in Beijing, which agreed to facilitate a return to her home country.
Hundreds like her have not been so lucky.

Rabia’s disclosure of her ordeal to Pakistan’s security services eventually led to the arrests of an international gang of Chinese “bride traffickers”.
Law enforcement agencies have accused the group of working with Chinese men to force girls like Rabia into prostitution. In extreme cases, the gang extracted organs from the women to be sold on the black market, police believe.
Philippines targets cybersex trafficking but young victims are often left in limbo
On Monday, acting on a tip-off, the country’s Federal Investigation Agency busted the group in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab.
The Chinese gang had been operating out of Pakistan with the help of a local facilitator, which lured Christian girls from humble backgrounds in exchange for a fee paid by the parents of up to US$5,000, as well as a monthly stipend of US$300.

“The Federal Investigation Agency [FIA] has arrested an international human-trafficking group comprising 10 Chinese nationals along with local facilitators,” Jamil Ahmed Khan, a senior official with the organisation, told the Post.
The authorities were unable to give the exact number of brides trafficked, but said it was in the hundreds, and investigations were ongoing.
K-pop sex scandal: Burning Sun nightclub linked to underage trafficking, violent abuse
One investigator looking into the case said the girls were lured into phoney marriages before being sent to a base in an upscale area of Lahore where they were taught Chinese before leaving Pakistan.
“It was the most organised gang. They were also involved in the human organ trade. We have irrefutable evidence against them and their local facilitators,” said Mohammad Azam, the FIA’s assistant director.

Alarm over the case prompted the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to issue a statement saying Beijing would work with Pakistan authorities to curb such illegal activities.
“Chinese and Pakistani authorities are constantly in touch over the issue. China has recently arrested some members of the network in China. The network comprises both Chinese and Pakistani nationals,” local media quoted Zhao Lijian, deputy chief of Beijing’s diplomatic mission, as saying.
Non-profit group, which helps sex-trafficking victims, seeks tie-ups with ethical business partners in Hong Kong
Sources in the Pakistani government told the Post that China had established a task force to investigate fake marriages between underprivileged Pakistani girls and Chinese men.
“The task force has recently arrived in Pakistan. It is working in collaboration with Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior to discourage the business of ‘illegal marriages’,” a source said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Pakistan and China to do more to tackle the problem, which it said was placing Pakistani girls at risk of sexual slavery.

The group said Pakistan was one of a number of countries targeted by Chinese prostitution networks, including Vietnam, Laos and North Korea.
Christian community leaders in Pakistan have said they believe as many as 1,000 women had been married off to Chinese men in the past six months.
On May 2, a team from the FIA raided a wedding ceremony in Faisalabad, the country’s third most populated city, where they arrested the Chinese groom.
Christians make up only about 2 per cent of Pakistan’s population and often suffer discrimination. Many have little access to a proper education and few job opportunities – a plight which has left the community impoverished, vulnerable and at risk of exploitation in the Muslim majority nation of 207 million.
For Rabia, the experience with her ex-husband had shattered her dreams, she said. “He cheated on me. He was abusive.”
She has applied for a divorce from a Pakistani court.


Malaysian journalist in bribe scandal returns, vowing to report ‘without fear or favour’

China dad finds son after 22 years, urges him to leave rich adoptive family, but is blocked

‘Risking our lives’: Indonesians warn of dangers in Cambodian scam compounds

Trafficked workers rescued from Myanmar scam hubs say death better than going back

Human trafficking

Abroad, alone, and abused: how young Pakistani brides lured to China face life of sexual slavery

New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Pakistan and China to do more to tackle bride trafficking, which it said was placing Pakistani girls at risk of sexual slavery. Photo: Shutterstock

This picture taken on November 22, 2018 shows Le Thi Vu, a Vietnamese woman who was rescued from a brothel in China's Guangxi province, sitting during an interview with Agence France-Presse in Hanoi. - Le Thi Vu -- whose name has been changed -- knew trying to escape could mean being beaten or even killed by her pimp, who kept her in a brothel for four months in China's Guangxi province where she was forced to sleep with up to 12 men a day. (Photo by Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP) / TO GO WITH STORY Mekong-China-women-trafficking-crime-rescues FEATURE by Jenny VAUGHAN

epa04340942 People wait for a meal at a rooftop restaurant in the backdrop of historic Badshahi Mosque, at the Food street in Lahore, Pakistan, 04 August 2014. Food street, that is surrounded by centuries-old historial buildings, is a tourist attraction in Lahore, that offers traditional Pakistani cuisine. EPA/OMER SALEEM

This picture taken on October 28, 2018 shows a money-changer carrying Chinese yuan at the Sunday market in Meo Vac, a mountainous border district between Vietnam's Ha Giang province and China. - Most people in this part of Vietnam have a story about bride trafficking. The victims come from poor communities and are tricked by boyfriends and sold, kidnapped against their will or move across the border by choice for marriage or the promise of work. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP) / TO GO WITH Mekong-China-women-trafficking-crime-Vietnam, FOCUS by Jenny Vaughan and Tran Thi Minh Ha

epaselect epa04340936 A general view of the historical Badshahi Mosque in the back drop of a sunset in Lahore, Pakistan, 04 August 2014. The Badshahi Masjid, literally the 'Royal Mosque', was built in 1673 by Mughal King Aurangzeb. Capable of accommodating some 50,000 worshippers, it is the second largest mosque in Pakistan. EPA/OMER SALEEM

Non-profit group, which helps sex-trafficking victims, seeks tie-ups with ethical business partners in Hong Kong

A poor neighbourhood in Cambodia. Photo: AIM

Two children in Svay Pak, near Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh.

Children attenting classes at a school built by AIM in Cambodia.

Rescued girl working at a factory set up by AIM in Cambodia.

Melissa and Matthew Scott at AIM school building site in 2019

News

Asia

East Asia

South Asia

This Week in Asia

Society

Impoverished, vulnerable Christian women are being tricked into marrying foreign men before they are packed off to China
Some are subjected to abuse, forced prostitution, and even organ extraction, police and human rights groups say


Impoverished, vulnerable Christian women are being tricked into marrying foreign men before they are packed off to China and subjected to abuse, forced prostitution, and even organ extraction, police and human rights groups say.


Pakistan

Abroad, alone, and abused: how young Pakistani brides lured to China face life of sexual slavery

Impoverished, vulnerable Christian women are being tricked into marrying foreign men before they are packed off to China Some are subjected to abuse, forced prostitution, and even organ extraction, police and human rights groups say

Impoverished, vulnerable Christian women are being tricked into marrying foreign men before they are packed off to China

Some are subjected to abuse, forced prostitution, and even organ extraction, police and human rights groups say