China has published shocking statistics on the trafficking of women and children within its borders, with police freeing 42 215 victims during the two years from 2001, state press reported on Tuesday.
Over the same period, more than 22 000 suspects were arrested as police cracked 20 360 cases involving kidnapped women and children, many whom were forced into marriages or sexual slavery, Xinhua news agency said.
”The Chinese government and police have placed a lot of importance on protecting the legal rights of women and children,” vice-minister of Public Safety Luo Feng was quoted as saying.
”We have actively pushed forward laws on the buying and selling of women and children, amended laws and regulations, improved our work and strictly punished those criminals who are caught buying and selling women and children.”
According to Chinese press reports, young rural women are routinely kidnapped, relocated and forced into unwanted marriages in rural villages or sold into sexual slavery in urban areas.
Young children, especially boys, are often reported missing and are believed to be sold into families unable to have children either for biological reasons or due to China’s strict ”one child” family planning policy.
According to Xinhua, China amended its criminal code in 1997 to better protect women and children from being trafficked and forced or sold into sexual slavery.
Such amendments have given police greater leeway in cracking down on gangs engaged in such criminal activities, it said.
In January, 45 people were arrested in southwestern Guizhou province for trying to sell 25 babies in northern China.
In December, also in Guizhou, three men were sentenced to death for tricking 32 young women with job offers and money, kidnapping them and then selling them into marriages in isolated and remote villages.
In November, two leaders of a gang accused of trafficking 118 babies were sentenced to death in the southern Chinese city of Yulin, Guangxi province. – Sapa-AFP