Pakistan, China ‘closely monitoring’ forced prostitution, trafficking allegations

In this April 14, 2019 photo, Mahek Liaqat, who married a Chinese national, shows her marriage certificate in Gujranwala, Pakistan. Poor Pakistani Christian girls are being lured into marriages with Chinese men, whom they are told are Christian and wealthy only to end up trapped in China, married to men who are neither Christian nor well-to-do, and some are unable to return home. (AP)

• This week Pakistan said it had busted a prostitution ring that sent young Pakistani women to China
• Hundreds of Christian women reportedly trafficked to meet a growing demand for foreign brides in China

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said on Saturday the government was working with China to address grievances of Pakistani individuals following revelations this week that a network of illicit marriage brokers was luring Pakistani women to China where they were forced into the prostitution and organ trades.
Pakistani authorities have made dozens of arrests this week, including on Friday when officials stopped two Chinese men and three Pakistani women from boarding a flight to China at the Islamabad Airport.
The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan has said a joint Pak-China probe into the allegations had found no evidence to claims that Pakistani women married to Chinese men were being forced into prostitution or organ sale.
In China, demand for foreign brides has mounted, a legacy of the one-child policy that skewed the country’s gender balance toward males.
“The Government of China had offered all possible cooperation on the issue,” the foreign office said in a statement. “Both sides are closely coordinating their efforts. In this context, a Chinese team visited Pakistan recently and held meetings with our law enforcement officials.”
The statement said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistan Missions in China were “closely monitoring” the situation and extending all possible assistance to Pakistani citizens who had complaints.
The foreign office also said an investigation into the matter by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security had found “no forced prostitution or sale of human organs of Pakistani women who stay in China after marriage with Chinese nationals.”
It advised the media to avoid “sensationalization” reporting on the matter and said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant departments of the Chinese government would continue to coordinate on the matter “to address the grievances of the affected individuals, bring the culprits to justice, and ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future.”
The arrests in Pakistan came a week after Human Rights Watch said Pakistan should be alarmed by recent reports of trafficking of women and girls into sexual slavery in China. It said the allegations were disturbingly similar to the pattern of trafficking of “brides” to China from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and North Korea.
Chinese men typically pay brokers between $10,000 and $20,000 for a foreign wife, a 2016 United Nations report said.