Chinese Border Town Emerges As New Front Line In Fight Against Human Trafficking
From Washington Post:
This booming little border town in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, where the economic prosperity of China is separated from the destitution of Burma by nothing more than a flimsy, rusted metal fence, has emerged as the new front line in the worldwide fight against human trafficking.
On any given afternoon, a steady stream of people scale the six-foot-high fence, unperturbed by the Chinese border guards posted just a hundred yards away. Amid the Burmese men looking for day labor, or women coming to sell their vegetables in the wealthier Chinese markets, is traffic far less benign:
Burmese women being brought over for marriages with Chinese men — some forced, some voluntarily arranged through “matchmakers.” Babies being brought into China to be sold. And Chinese women from poorer inland areas being moved in the opposite direction, often ending up in Southeast Asia’s sex industry.
Origin: Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post
