China's organized effort against human trafficking is cracking down on websites offering brides-for-sale, especially those targeting women from Southeast Asian countries most of whom end up as victims of human trafficking syndicates.

The Ministry of Public Security has ordered its criminal investigation bureau to take action against the operators of these websites that advertise "group-purchase brides" from countries like Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

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Wang Ying, deputy director of the human trafficking at the ministry's criminal investigation bureau, said marriage brokerages that introduce Chinese men to foreign women will also be a target in the renewed campaign.

"Some cross-border marriage brokerages or websites have been publishing tempting advertisements to introduce Vietnamese brides for cross-border marriages, but most of these involve kidnappings," said Wang.

In China, the ratio of boys to girls is severely unbalanced, resulting in an increasing number of bachelors. The cost of marrying a Chinese woman has grown so high that men now look at marriage to a foreign spouse as an option.

This trend is what human- trafficking groups have taken advantage of, bringing women from countries in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, many of the brokered marriages do not actually happen, and the women end up in prostitution dens in China's coastal or border areas, such as Yunnan and Guangdong provinces, or the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In East China's Fujian province, police uncovered  more than 100 human trafficking cases in December and rescued 28 victims, most of them Vietnamese women.

Sixty-two suspects were arrested, including some who operated or were employed in illegal marriage agencies and websites.

Wang said marriage agencies, using these websites, organize tours for Chinese men in Southeast Asia where they are introduced to young women from the rural areas, mostly in their 20s or 30s. The women turn out to have been recruited with the promise of becoming brides of rich Chinese men.

The women are told to convince their prospective "husband" to have their wedding in Vietnam, where the marriage agencies charge male clients 30,000 to 50,000 yuan (US$4,800 to US$8,150) as service charge. To recover the costs, the women usually end up being abused as laborers in rural areas in China, while many others are sold to prostitution syndicates.

In support of the campaign, Wang said police will conduct regular actions to combat trafficking and pay more attention to bus stations, docks and small roads in the fields or mountains where traffickers easily pass accompanying their victims.

Myanmar announced on Sunday that it intends to implement a sub-regional action plan for the years 2014 to 2018 in collaboration with ASEAN members and China, to strengthen the campaign against human trafficking. Authorities in that country said they have arrested 211 human traffickers and rescued 105 victims this year alone.

The All China Lawyers Association agrees that more law enforcement cooperation is needed between China and Southeast Asia to solve the human trafficking problem.

Lawyer Liu Fang, a leader in the association, said, "More efforts are required in terms of intelligence sharing and case investigation, as well as transferring and repatriating the suspects." 

TagsHuman Trafficking, foreign brides