Bride trafficking, a problem on China’s belt and road
- As Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure drive expands across Asia, experts say greater regional connectivity may have an unwanted by-product
- Girls and young women in the poorer countries it connects appear to be at greater risk of human trafficking and forced marriages
Louise was living from hand to mouth while helping her aunt sell noodle soup in the Laos capital of Vientiane, which sits on a curve of the Mekong River. Their lives were mostly untouched by the increasing Chinese investment in their country that in recent years has built billion-dollar dams, bridges and railways.
Louise* was in her early 20s and had few professional prospects when she was approached by a woman who told her there were great opportunities in China, the country’s northern neighbour seen as a land of technological breakthroughs and booming cities.
The woman said her relatives had been successful in China and she offered to take Louise there, too. Louise did not know then that this was her first step to being trapped in an abusive marriage with a Chinese man who felt he owned her.
“I wanted to support my parents … I am poor and I was very curious to see China. I thought it would bring me a better life,” Louise recalls. Soon she was in a van with nine other Laotian women, travelling from Vientiane to the border with Thailand, and from there to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where they boarded a flight to Guangzhou in southern China.
Louise is among thousands of young girls and women, mostly from Asian countries, who have been trafficked into marriages with Chinese men. She has since been rescued, but many others have not been so lucky.
