Girls for sale: Human trafficking in China

The Shanghai Daily recently ran a report after authorities, acting on information provided by a whistle-blower, busted a human trafficking ring in Hunan Province. The report stated:

More than two dozen suspects have been arrested so far, according to the Sanxiang Metropolis News.

The paper said an alleged baby trader arrested in Hunan's Qidong County told police he has been selling babies to orphanages and social welfare institutions for years, making 800 yuan (US$99) to 1,200 yuan on each transaction.

The agencies then resold the children to other orphanages or childless couples for 8,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan, the newspaper said.

The picture accompanying the report (see above), however, was not from the Hunan case but from a similar case in Guangdong province. The leaders of the human trafficking ring over there was sentenced to death, while the others were given fairly stiff prison sentences.

Human trafficking extends beyond babies, of course. The International Labor Organization has recently implemented some programs to help combat this problem as it pertains to young women as the most vulnerable of economic migrants in a country where, as of last year, an estimated 120 million migrated in search of better jobs. This recent report details some of the awareness raising campaigns that the ILO, in conjunction with local government and Women's Federation offices, has been working on. These campaigns have mostly targeted the three "sending provinces" of Anhui, Hunan, and Henan, and aim to not only to educate children (potential future migrants) about the hazards of migration, but also to promote new innovations such as a village trafficking "alarm" networks.