China and Trafficking

China has many problems facing it as a nation.  It appears sex trafficking is certainly one of them.  Humantrafficking.org dedicates a whole page to how the country is a source country, a transit country and a destination country for slaves.

China is a destination for many human traffickers, especially those from
Southeast Asia.  image courtesy rfa.org

The website explains that roughly 600,000 workers emigrate from the country and even more do so without official papers.  These workers are lured by false promises of economic prosperity and are coerced into prostitution once outside the country.  The majority of these workers are currently men but the website explains that slavery statistics for women ages 17-25 are on the rise.  Additionally, some 20,000 children each year are kidnapped for illegal adoption. 

All this is done by highly sophisticated crime syndicates.  They take

the unsuspecting workers and ship them predominantly to Thailand and Malaysia.  Slaves are imported from countries such as Mongolia, Russia, North Korea and various Southeast Asia countries.  Various NGOs, the website explains, cite the one child policy as a driver of international trafficking.  The skewed sex ratio has created a demand for women in the country. 

Internally, an estimated 150 million people are trafficked throughout China.  This can be accomplished due to China’s poor labor oversight and weak child labor laws.  The Chinese government recently created hotlines to report trafficking cases and has taken steps to enforce its trafficking laws.  Teaming up with INTERPOL and other international organizations, China has been able to increase its prosecution rate for human traffickers significantly since 2009. 

The Sustainable Development Goals include trafficking by name.  Under “Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, the SDGs state a sub goal of “Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.”  Additionally, the sub goal of “Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.” 

The SDGs suggest that social media posting is the best that the average joe can do in terms of combat sex trafficking.  The SDGs webpage encourages the use of the hash tag “#action2015” to accompany these posts.

Finally, the website suggests that familiarizing yourself with the international calendar of days will help you keep up with key events, including those that work to combat trafficking. 

Personally, while I believe that the expansion of awareness is important, more must be done if the UN wants to see real change.  I would encourage the UN to fund workshops that inform those who work in the transportation community about the signs of trafficking, as explained in the reading Born Free (Mendelson, 2014). 

I would also encourage the UN to establish centers in countries that are especially affected by trafficking.  These centers could aid victims and also organize NGOs.  Additionally, these centers would provide pressure on national governments to work to combat trafficking in their borders.  I would not, however, impose economic sanctions.  This would harm the people and thus create the desperation that many traffickers prey on.