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Bopha B

2016 (Narrative date)

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

 

Bopha was working in Phnom Penh when she told she could earn more money moving to China and marrying a Chinese man. Though she didn’t want to, the broker eventually convinced her mother to persuade her. Bopha eventually moved to China.

When I was working in Phnom Penh, a woman from my village called and said that my mother had no money and I should help her by going to China and marrying a Chinese man. She herself had married her two daughters off to Chinese men and they sent her $700 soon after they got to China, and $5,000 the next month. When I refused to go, she continuously called me once every two or three days in order to persuade me. She then enticed my mother to convince me to marry a Chinese man.

  

Narrative provided by UN-ACT report Human Trafficking Vulnerabilities in Asia