Three Chinese among seven arrested for trafficking women to China

FIA officials say the men presented themselves as Muslims using fake certificates to lure the women

RAWALPINDI: Federal investigators on Tuesday claimed to have arrested seven suspects, including three Chinese nationals, on charges of allegedly trafficking women from the country and forcing them into illicit acts while harvesting organs from them.

The revelation comes a day after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested a gang of at least eight Chinese nationals in Lahore for allegedly luring young Pakistani girls into fake marriages then forcing them into prostitution in China.

An FIA official said that two women had managed to appear before the agency’s director general and complained about the Chinese and Pakistanis who were involved in the trafficking ring.

Thereafter, FIA Islamabad Zone Director Fakhar Sultan Raja was directed to investigate the matter. While investigating the issue, FIA Human Smuggling Cell Deputy Director Kamran Ali and his team raided multiple locations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and arrested the suspected gang leader Song Chuao Yang and his Pakistani facilitator Sajid. Police also apprehended his manager and translator Rafiq Hussain.

FIA arrests Chinese nationals allegedly involved in human trafficking

During questioning, the men gave details of their other accomplices, including two Pakistani-Chinese couples, who were also arrested including Guyong Da and Fusing Bu.

Investigators stated that the Chinese men pretended to be Muslims to lure the women. They even had fake certificates from Chinese authorities certifying they were Muslim and then pretended to marry local women to take them back to China where they would then allegedly force these women into prostitution apart from extracting their organs.

Officials said that they were still investigating the matter further to determine the true extent of their gang’s size and activities. They further said that they expect to make more arrests in the case.

This is not the first time complaints of Chinese men attempting to traffic Pakistani women have surfaced.

On Monday, FIA officials in Lahore had busted an eight-member gang of Chinese men and their four Pakistani facilitators who were luring women into fake marriages, taking them to China and forcing them into prostitution there.

Federal Minister for Interior Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Ahmad Shah on Tuesday took notice of Chinese men being involved in alleged human trafficking and directed concerned departments to take action on the matter immediately.

FIA arrests eight Chinese men involved in human trafficking

Last month, Human Rights Watch had raised alarm over "bride" trafficking from Pakistan to China in a report, where it said Islamabad should be "alarmed" at the reports.

It warned they are "disturbingly similar to the pattern of trafficking of 'brides' to China from at least five other Asian countries".

Tens of thousands of young women from Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam marry Chinese men each year, plugging a gender gap incubated by Beijing's three-decade-long one-child policy.

"China is cooperating with Pakistani law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal matchmaking centres. We remind both Chinese and Pakistani citizens to remain vigilant and not be cheated," the Chinese embassy in Islamabad said.

Pakistan does not meet the "minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so", the US State Department notes in its annual Trafficking in Persons report.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2019.