The rate of brides being trafficked to China from Pakistan is dangerously high and a cause to ring alarm bells for the latter’s government. Interestingly, the pattern and degree of the crime is eerily similar to bride-trafficking from five other Asian countries to China.
Earlier this month, a news agency raided a matchmaking centre in Lahore where six women – two of them were just 13-year-old girls – were waiting to travel to China. The women had been given 400,000 PKR as an initial payment, and were promised another 40, 000 PKR as a monthly stipend in future. Moreover, they received a Chinese visa for a male member. According to Nikkei Asian Review the practice of Chinese men purchasing Pakistani brides has been happening for several years.
Since 1987, the population of women in China has been witnessing a steady decline. The reasons accounted for this are, ‘one-child-policy’; preference for sons, and curbs on women’s reproductive rights. Consequently, the gender gap led to 30-40 million women wanting in China. Hence, men, unable to find wives, have to depend on trafficked brides.
Human Rights Watch documented bride trafficking in Myanmar too: Women and young girls are tricked into believing that jobs await in China. Little do they know that they will be sold to Chinese families and into sexual slavery for years without no escape in sight. Those who escape often have to leave their children behind. Journalists have documented similar forms of bride trafficking from Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.
Sino-Pak friendship is exemplary; even more so under BRI mega project. On April 13, the Chinese embassy in Pakistan issued a statement: “We notice that recently some unlawful matchmaking centers made illegal profits from brokering cross-national marriages…China is cooperating with Pakistani law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal matchmaking centers.”
China and Pakistan recognize that Pakistani women are at high risk of sexual slavery in China. The two time-tested friends have vowed to combat this issue. The sooner it happens, the better for Pakistani women and their plight.