International crime groups spreading ‘trafficking of Chinese women’ abroad

BEIJING - A Chinese police officer has claimed there has been a rise in the number of women from his country being forced into prostitution abroad by international crime groups.

The China Daily quoted Chen Shiqu, Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Office, which falls under the Ministry of Public Security, as saying that poor women from rural areas of China were being trafficked either for forced marriage or prostitution in different parts of the country, as also in Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.

“There has been a growing trend for organized transnational human trafficking crime groups to target Chinese women for forced prostitution in foreign countries,” the paper quoted Chen, as saying.

“Many of the trafficked women were cheated by criminal suspects under the guise of overseas study or high-paid jobs and then forced into prostitution,” he added.

Citing statistics from Malaysian Police, Chan said that a total of 5,453 Chinese women suspected of engaging in prostitution were detained by the end of November last year.

The paper quoted statistics from Chen’s office, as saying that Chinese police have cracked 9,165 trafficking cases and rescued 17,746 women since April 2009 when the Ministry of Public Security launched a special campaign.

Chan further said that there is an increasing need for more international cooperation as trafficking in other countries can involve various organized crime groups. (ANI)