Trafficking of women and children is a serious problem in China. In 2011 Chinese police rescued over 24,000 women and children who otherwise would have been sold for adoption or forced into prostitution, some as far away as Angola.
China’s Ministry of Public Security reported on its website that police across the country had rescued 8,660 children and 15,458 women in 2011–all victims of trafficking. Those victims include more than 2,000 children who had been abducted and sold for adoption. According to the same report, the Ministry of Public Security broke-up nearly 3,200 trafficking gangs in 2011.
China’s trafficking woes have been blamed on its “one-child” policy. Many Chinese families give up girls for adoption, because as daughters they will not carry on family names.
Source
Marianne Barriaux, “China frees 24,000 abducted women, kids in 2011,” Agence France Presse, March 11, 2012, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gUe15TLhkuGaKoDJJZnkMD1R_Uaw?docId=CNG.86e75224ffd8d2b08c5ea61e4f7ee100.291;
reposted at Alternet, http://www.alternet.org/rss/breaking_news/839745/china_frees_24,000_abducted_women,_kids_in_2011
Student researcher: Emmalie Gabel (College of Marin)
Faculty evaluator: Susan Rahman (College of Marin)