After 'bride trafficking' from Pakistan, Chinese nationals lure Bangladeshi women into 'sex slavery': OPED

Opinion by: Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

In 2019, it was reported that more than 600 poor Pakistani girls had been sold as brides to Chinese men over a period of nearly two years. Now, a sinister wave of deception is sweeping rural Bangladesh as Chinese nationals ensnare vulnerable women in elaborate romantic traps. These unsuspecting women are promised love and a better life, only to be trafficked to China and sold into the dark world of sex slavery and human organ trafficking.

On July 1, 2023, a widow in Chuadanga, a district in northern Bangladesh, married off her 19-year-old daughter to a Chinese national named Cui Po Wei, hoping to lift them out of poverty. She believed Wei had converted to Islam and would settle in Bangladesh. However, within six months, Cui Po Wei's true face was revealed when he took his Bangladeshi wife to China and forced her into prostitution. The victim's mother filed a complaint in a Dhaka court on March 31, 2024.

On March 11, 2024, the victim managed to call her mother in Bangladesh using Imo. She said she was severely physically tortured by Wei and his associates and forced to serve 10 to 15 clients every day. Cui Po Wei had threatened to sell her to human organ traffickers if she refused to comply.

The victim’s mother personally knows four other poor women in the locality who were similarly deceived by Chinese nationals. These traffickers, posing as prospective husbands, have agents in Bangladesh who provide them with contact details, including social media accounts, of the targeted local women.

Another source, who requested anonymity, said two groups in Dhaka were actively seeking susceptible Bangladeshi women, especially those from indigenous communities in the hilly regions. These groups match the women with Chinese nationals who lure them into romantic traps, marry them and take them to China.

The source further revealed that these traffickers sometimes meet their targets, who are often members of indigenous communities or garment factory workers, at various restaurants in Dhaka. Marriage formalities are usually accomplished through a registration process in the presence of civil registrars.

Local gang members sign the marriage certificates as relatives of the victims. For helping the Chinese traffickers, local agents receive between 5 and 7 hundred thousand BDT (5,982 to 7,273 US dollars), and a similar amount is given to the victim's family as a “bride gift.”

A Chinese woman named Ji Yixian, residing in Dhaka under the pretext of representing a ready-made garment purchasing company, is allegedly engaged in a racket targeting women in various parts of the country, including garment factories in and around Dhaka.

According to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), organized human traffickers from China exploit the poverty and helplessness of local residents, luring them into marriage traps and then forcing them into prostitution in China. If a woman is not attractive to customers because of her age or physical problems, she is sold to human organ trafficking rings.

On May 1, 2024, a woman from the indigenous community of Rangamati, a hilly district in eastern Bangladesh, filed a complaint with the local police. She reported that a trafficking gang led by Rikha Chakma had held her sister captive in Dhaka with the intention of trafficking her to China. Rikha resides in the Uttara residential area of ​​Dhaka.

She also said her 21-year-old sister was taken to Dhaka with the promise of admission to a nursing institute, but was later forced to marry a Chinese man.

On April 26, 2024, a 21-year-old Marma woman from Khagrachhari district filed a complaint with the local police, accusing five named persons and two or three other unknown persons of trying to smuggle her to China. According to the complaint, she was taken to a house in Uttara Sector 11 in Dhaka and forced to marry a Chinese man. Fortunately, locals rescued her and arrested three gang members on April 25 while they were taking her to a government office to obtain a document for her passport.

In 2018, three women from indigenous communities were rescued from Chinese sex traffickers through diplomatic efforts. At the time, the Bangladesh embassy in Beijing alerted the government that local and foreign brokers were trafficking ethnic minority girls to China for marriage with Chinese men. The embassy reported that traffickers lure their victims with promises of a better life in China by arranging marriages to Chinese businessmen or wealthy officials. However, the brides' dreams are shattered when they arrive in China, faced with a stark contrast between the promises of traffickers and the harsh reality with their Chinese husbands.

Recently, Pinky Chakma, president of the Chittagong Hill Women's Federation, said that in the past few years, more than 500 girls, mostly 13 years old, have been trafficked to China using fake documents. Some of these trafficked women have shared their tragic stories live on social media.

The alarming increase in cases of human trafficking highlights the urgency of greater vigilance and strengthened international cooperation to combat these heinous crimes. The stories of these courageous survivors coming to light are a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities many people face and the relentless efforts needed to protect the most vulnerable from these malicious schemes. The government, NGOs and international agencies must step up their efforts to dismantle these trafficking networks and bring the perpetrators to justice, to ensure a safer future for all women in Bangladesh.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is an internationally renowned, multiple award-winning anti-militant journalist, writer, researcher and editor of Blitz, a newspaper published in Bangladesh since 2003. He writes regularly for local and international newspapers. Follow him on X @Salah_Shoaib