Women sold years ago vanish again
By Wang Qingchu |
August 20, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
DOZENS of Vietnamese wives sold in a central China village years ago have gone missing and are suspected of having been sold again by human traffickers to other regions.
The women disappeared suddenly from villages in Hunan Province recently, long after they were sold to locals from poverty-stricken hometowns in Vietnam.
Very few villagers reported the missing to police for fear their purchases of brides would be exposed, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported yesterday.
The wife of Hu Jianhe, a Vietnamese, went missing several months ago. Hu didn't notice anything unusual before her disappearance, he said. His wife simply went shopping in the town and never came back.
In July, Hu received a phone call from his wife, who wept and begged Hu to send 20,000 yuan (US$3,131) to free her from human traffickers. She said she had been resold to a remote village in southwest Yunnan Province, but refused to reveal the detailed address.
The same thing happened to a few fellow villagers. A large influx of Vietnamese brides has been sold to the hinterland of Hunan since 2008, according to Hu.
Local government turned a blind eye to the purchases of brides because it was very common for locals to buy wives, Hu Chunmei, former Party secretary of the village, told the newspaper.
Hu Chunmei, in fact, was the witness of several marriages involving Vietnamese brides.
The price for each bride ranged from 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan plus another 2,000-yuan "introduction fee" paid to human traffickers, the report said.
Without identification papers, marriage certificates or residence permits, these illegal immigrants were not protected by law.
Their records didn't exist in the police system, making them "invisible" and "untraceable" by local police, the report said.
Police received the missing-wives report from only two villagers, but according to Hu Jianhe, there were many more cases.
Yang Jinmei, one of the Vietnamese brides, was kidnapped by human traffickers in 2008 at the border of China and Vietnam.
"Some Vietnamese women were willing to marry Chinese husbands, while others were abducted or coaxed," Yang told the newspaper.
The women disappeared suddenly from villages in Hunan Province recently, long after they were sold to locals from poverty-stricken hometowns in Vietnam.
Very few villagers reported the missing to police for fear their purchases of brides would be exposed, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported yesterday.
The wife of Hu Jianhe, a Vietnamese, went missing several months ago. Hu didn't notice anything unusual before her disappearance, he said. His wife simply went shopping in the town and never came back.
In July, Hu received a phone call from his wife, who wept and begged Hu to send 20,000 yuan (US$3,131) to free her from human traffickers. She said she had been resold to a remote village in southwest Yunnan Province, but refused to reveal the detailed address.
The same thing happened to a few fellow villagers. A large influx of Vietnamese brides has been sold to the hinterland of Hunan since 2008, according to Hu.
Local government turned a blind eye to the purchases of brides because it was very common for locals to buy wives, Hu Chunmei, former Party secretary of the village, told the newspaper.
Hu Chunmei, in fact, was the witness of several marriages involving Vietnamese brides.
The price for each bride ranged from 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan plus another 2,000-yuan "introduction fee" paid to human traffickers, the report said.
Without identification papers, marriage certificates or residence permits, these illegal immigrants were not protected by law.
Their records didn't exist in the police system, making them "invisible" and "untraceable" by local police, the report said.
Police received the missing-wives report from only two villagers, but according to Hu Jianhe, there were many more cases.
Yang Jinmei, one of the Vietnamese brides, was kidnapped by human traffickers in 2008 at the border of China and Vietnam.
"Some Vietnamese women were willing to marry Chinese husbands, while others were abducted or coaxed," Yang told the newspaper.
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