China-Kingdom MoU targets illicit bride market

Manekseka Sangkum: 

It's been well-documented that there is a marked shortage of girls in China of marrying age in proportion to the overall demand for brides due to the state's actively sponsored one-child policy that encourages parents to select a boy rather than a girl as their preferred heir and offspring, and this biological imbalance has been met to some extent by the black market in human trafficking and the bride market operating across most emerging South East Asian countries from Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, to Cambodia. 

In many ways, the age-old discriminatory practices against girls and women in general in the world's two most populous nations of India and China have taken on new forms as ancient prejudices and traditions have found their modern day allies and defenders in economics and demographic rationales, instead of harbouring these practices on their own. In the Middle East, the state takes even less interest in the 'universal' laws and expectations governing the treatment of women, preferring the Will of Allah and the Sword of his male oppressors and executors to keep most women in line and bondage. At least, the demand in these latter countries for maids and domestic workers from South East Asia highlights the reach and influence of economics in meeting mankind's worst sins against girls and women, and the Cambodian government's recent announcement of agreement to supply maids to these states does nothing for vulnerable and ill-educated women in this direction.

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China-Kingdom MoU targets illicit bride market

Sat, 12 March 2016 ppp

Chhay Channyda

A government anti-trafficking committee is in the final steps of drafting a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to crack down on human trafficking between Cambodia and China, an official said yesterday.

Ran Serey Leakhena, deputy secretary general of the National Committee for Counter-Trafficking (NCCT), said that a meeting was held on Thursday to draft the MoU. It would be signed by both countries in late May or early June, she said.

“The aim is to focus on the forced marriages of Cambodians to Chinese. There have been problems of Cambodian women marrying Chinese men, with abuses and rights violations,” she said.

The MoU would also address marriage licensing procedures between Chinese and Cambodian couples, she said, though any changes would not cover already married couples.

Cambodia is a source country for humans trafficked to China and other countries, according to the US State Department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons report. Many victims are women coerced into going to China, usually by dishonest offers of employment, only to be forced into marriage with a male Chinese buyer, the report said.

In 2015 alone, 82 Cambodian women were repatriated from China after being tricked into marrying Chinese men, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In January, an appeals court upheld a seven-year sentence for a Chinese woman who tried to coerce two Phnom Penh fruit sellers into relocating to China in 2013, claiming they would be taught to manufacture umbrellas.

Last month, in a move to streamline Cambodia’s clunky counter-trafficking apparatus, the government released guidelines to deal with human-trafficking cases.