Reuters AlertNet Lite - China women, children face growing trafficking threat

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China women, children face growing trafficking threat

04 Apr 2007 08:02:15 GMT
Source: Reuters

BEIJING, April 4 (Reuters) - Women and children in China face a growing threat of being trafficked and sold into marriage or sex work, as labour migration and a widening gender imbalance put them at risk, an international aid group said on Wednesday.

China has about 119 boys born for every 100 girls, an imbalance that has grown since it introduced a one-child policy more than 25 years ago and that is contributing to the problem of trafficking.

"Lack of girls for marriage in the eastern and rural areas is fuelling a demand for girl babies to be raised as future brides for better-off farmers' sons," Kate Wedgwood, China country director for Save the Children, told the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

The strict family-planning policy means China will be home to 30 million more men of marriageable age than women by 2020, state media has reported.

It also meant many poor, rural families were reluctant to register children born outside of the plan, leaving them vulnerable to trafficking or exploitation by local officials who encourage them to hand over their babies in return for being let off paying a fine, Wedgwood said.

Migration for employment was also leaving many vulnerable to traffickers, both poor, rural workers who move across the country to huge urban centres, and children who are left behind, often without adequate care.

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Last updated:Wed Apr 4 08:02:59 2007