More than 10,000 Vietnamese women sold to China
HANOI - About 10,400 Vietnamese women have been sold to China to be
wives of Chinese men or to work as maids or prostitutes, a
state-controlled newspaper
reported on Monday.
Of the total, 1,829 women have escaped back to Vietnam with 200
children fathered by Chinese, the Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside
Today) newspaper
quoted a Ministry of Public Security report as saying.
It said Vietnamese boys have also been sold to China recently, adding
that authorities are investigating the motive of the sales.
The human traffickers normally use tourist travel documents or paths
across the land border to take women and children to China, it said.
The newspaper did not specify a time period for the trafficking figure,
but it apparently applied to the period since the two countries
restored diplomatic
relations in 1991 following a brief but bloody border war in 1979.
Since normalization, there has been increased trade as well as visits
by villagers across the border.
Men in southern China who have difficulty marrying local women have
looked to Vietnam for wives.
Vietnamese wives are also popular among Taiwanese men and Vietnamese
Americans.
In Ho Chi Minh City alone, more than 10,000 Vietnamese women have
married foreigners in the past few years, officials say. Most of the
foreign
grooms are Taiwanese or Vietnamese Americans.
Vietnamese police have broken up several women trafficking rings in
recent years.
The Associated Press - May 14, 2001
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