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Human traffickers arrested at Shweli
(Volume 26, No. 512)
MYANMAR and Chinese anti-human trafficking squads recently arrested two traffickers at Shweli on the China border after receiving a tip-off from a “duty-conscious citizen”, state media reported last week.
A Yangon man was subsequently arrested for supplying victims, while in another recent operation two women from Yangon were arrested attempting to traffic a 15-year-old girl into China, the New Light of Myanmar reported on February 25.
Ma Aye Aye Hlaing, of Aungmye-thazan township in Mandalay, and Ma Myint Myint Win, of Dawbon township in Yangon, were arrested in Shweli’s Lonchan Ward for “trafficking young Myanmar women” into China for the purpose of forced marriage, the report said.
Ma Aye Aye Hlaing later admitted under “interrogation” that since 2009 she had been trafficking Myan-mar women from Yangon and selling them “to men in Fujian Province”, using Shweli as a base for the operation.
The two women paid K1.2 million for each victim – K700,000 to the transporter and K500,000 to the victim – the report said.
It named seven human traffickers in Yangon Division’s Dawbon, Hlaing Tharyar and Thanlyin townships who had supplied women to Ma Aye Aye Hlaing and Ma Myint Myint.
One of the seven, Tun Tun Win of Dawbon township, has since been arrested, while the rest “are still at large”.
The report, dated February 24, did not specify when the arrests took place or if any victims were recovered. Officials are now coordinating with the Muse-Shweli Border Liaison Office to recover the women already trafficked to Fujian Province.
In another recent case of human trafficking for forced marriage, officials on February 17 saved a 15-year-old victim who was being trafficked into China, the report said.
Two human traffickers, Ma Mya Thida Naing of Hlegu township and Ma San San Aung of South Dagon township, were arrested at the Yepusan Checkpoint in Lashio township when officials checked a van travelling from Lashio to Muse at about 5:30pm and found the young woman.
“The two [traffickers] took a woman, 15, to forcibly marry her to a man in [China], deceiving her that she would be given a job in Bago,” the report said.
The victim has since been returned to her parents.
The report said human traffickers often lure young women with “false incentives such as they will be appointed in a garment factory in [China or] they will be given a well-paid job in Muse” but they are then “forcibly married to [Chinese] men”. Authorities are now giving educative talks on human trafficking.
Figures provided by the United Nations Inter-Agency Project (UNIAP) on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region show two-thirds of human trafficking cases involving Myanmar nationals uncovered in 2009 by the Myanmar Police Force were women being sold into forced marriages in China. Of the 155 human trafficking cases recorded for the year, 103 involved forced marriage into China and the country is now a major source, transit and destination point for human trafficking, according to the UN.
Speaking at the 7th Senior Officials Meeting of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) held in Bagan in January, Mr Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator, praised Myanmar government efforts to combat human trafficking but said the issue remains a “huge challenge”.
“Progress has been made, but we must not lose sight of the fact that trafficking remains a huge challenge. It is imperative that we continue to address the root causes, while at same time reach out to the many people directly affected by trafficking. To make a real difference, we must have a common vision that continues to build and expand on our unified counter trafficking response,” he said.
Since the establishment of Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law in 2005, there have been 443 identified human trafficking cases and 1158 offenders have been identified and prosecuted, according to the police. More than 1000 trafficking victims have been rescued and assisted from those cases and another 821 trafficking victims have been repatriated by other countries.
