The Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were over 3.8 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in China. Women and girls from South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa are trafficked in to forced marriage in the country for fees of up to £30,000. The gender imbalance caused by the One Child Policy and the cultural preference for male children, has caused a shortage of women which has led to the trafficking of women to be sold as brides. As a result many women find themselves either deceived by promises of employment, sold or abducted and forced into marrying Chinese men who have paid for them.  Seng Moon’s family fled fighting in Myanmar’s Kachin State in 2011 and wound up struggling to survive in a camp for internally displaced people. In 2014 when Seng Moon was 16 and attending fifth grade, her sister in law said she knew of a job as a cook in China’s neighbouring Yunnan province. Seng Moon did not want to go but the promised wage was far more than she could make in the IDP camp. In the car, Seng Moon’s sister-in-law gave her something she said prevented car sickness. Seng Moon fell asleep immediately and when she woke up, she was in China. She was forced to marry a Chinese man and seven months later was pregnant. After her son was born, Seng Moon asked to go home, her husband told her no one would stop her, but she couldn’t take her child. Over two years after being trafficked to China, Seng Moon met a Kachin woman in the market who gave her 1000 yuan to help her return to Myanmar with her son.

The Global Slavery Index has estimated that there are almost 3 million people living in conditions of modern slavery in the region of the Middle East and North Africa. Oman is a transit and destination country for men and women primarily from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, most of whom migrate willingly as domestic servants or low-skilled workers in the country’s construction, agriculture and service sectors. Trafficked persons subsequently experience conditions of modern slavery such as the confiscation of passports, restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, long working hours without rest and physical or sexual abuse. Amani W. worked in Oman from 2014 to 2017. She was forced to work long hours with no rest. Amani tried to escape after 6 months but was caught by the police who returned her to her employer. When her contract was finally up she asked to go home, however was taken to hospital where her employers renewed her visa.