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Champei

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.

Champei travelled along with four other women to China for work. However, upon arrival she was taken to a guesthouse where she was kept for a few days before being sold in to marriage with a Chinese man.

At the airport in Cambodia, I met other four young women who were traveling with me. Each of us received a passport and a flight ticket. After checking in, we were led by a man whom I didn’t know to the passport control and boarding. We landed in Beijing and were taken by a man to some town. We were put up at a guesthouse for a couple of nights and then separated into two small groups traveling in different directions. After a few hours, the car stopped and three people were waiting on the roadside. I was asked to leave the van and move along with those strangers in their car. I asked in Khmer where I would go and what I would be doing, but no received no answer for the driver was Chinese.

 

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