Burmese Women Smuggled into China Arrested

By LAWI WENG

About 200 Burmese women have been arrested in China, after they were smuggled into the country under pretext of finding work, said a source on the border.

Aung Kyaw Zwa, a Burmese businessman on the China-Burma border, told The Irrawaddy that 200 Burmese women, who said they had entered the country illegally through the help of human traffickers, are being held in Chinese jails.

Twenty-four Burmese women were deported two days ago, he said. The others remain in jail where they will serve a three-month sentence for violating Chinese immigration laws, he said.

One young woman who was deported on Monday told a story about being “married” to a Chinese man about 60 years old. She said the man broke two of her teeth and cut her long hair, because he worried that other men would try to take her away from him.

The woman said she was told that if she agreed to be smuggled into China, she could earn 150,000 kyat monthly (US $121).

“They come here, and it is very risky,” said the source. “They hope for some good luck but most of them are unlucky.”

Earlier this month, the businessman said an18-year-old Burmese woman who was in China illegally returned to her smuggler’s home to seek help after experiencing difficulties. The smuggler refused to help her, and she was reportedly raped and killed.

The Thailand-based Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT) released a human trafficking report in August, titled “Eastward Bound,” based on interviews with 163 human trafficking victims from 2004 to 2007. The report said 37 percent of the women ended up as “wives” of Chinese men and about 4 percent worked as housemaids or in the sex industry.

After Cyclone Nagris, Burma’s economy has suffered and increasing numbers of women from Rangoon, Mandalay and the Irrawaddy delta have migrated to towns on the Chinese border in hope of finding a better life.

Burmese men, women and children are smuggled into Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Macau and Pakistan.