Police probe missing Vietnamese brides in China
BEIJING - Police in China have launched an investigation into the suspected abduction of about 100 Vietnamese women who had been sold as brides to Chinese men, state media said.
The missing women had been living in remote villages in the central province of Hunan, the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday, citing local police and family members.
After the women disappeared, some husbands received phone calls ordering them to pay ransoms or their wives would be sold again, Xinhua said.
The report did not say when the women disappeared.
Local police would not comment on the investigation when contacted by AFP on Sunday.
Hu Jianhe, who paid 36,388 yuan (about $6,877) for his Vietnamese bride in 2008, said his wife called him two months after she went missing.
"She sobbed and told me that she was kidnapped and sold to another remote village and needed 20,000 yuan to ransom her back," Hu was quoted as saying.
The exact number of missing women could be higher than 100 as some men may be reluctant to report their wives missing for fear of being accused of trafficking, Xinhua said.
The widening gender gap in China has fuelled bride trafficking and prostitution in the world's most populous country.
The gap between the sexes has long been attributed to China's "one-child" family planning policy, which has resulted in more male births due to a traditional preference for male children.
A census recently completed in the country found 118.06 males were born in China to every 100 baby girls over the past 10 years.
A study last year warned that over 24 million men of marrying age could find themselves without wives in 2020, a potentially explosive social problem.
zeker totaal onverwacht dit
.. ideaal voor mensensmokkelaars natuurlijk, nu is er pas echt een gat in de markt voor vrouwen daar.
bron: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110821-295511.html
BEIJING - Police in China have launched an investigation into the suspected abduction of about 100 Vietnamese women who had been sold as brides to Chinese men, state media said.
The missing women had been living in remote villages in the central province of Hunan, the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday, citing local police and family members.
After the women disappeared, some husbands received phone calls ordering them to pay ransoms or their wives would be sold again, Xinhua said.
The report did not say when the women disappeared.
Local police would not comment on the investigation when contacted by AFP on Sunday.
Hu Jianhe, who paid 36,388 yuan (about $6,877) for his Vietnamese bride in 2008, said his wife called him two months after she went missing.
"She sobbed and told me that she was kidnapped and sold to another remote village and needed 20,000 yuan to ransom her back," Hu was quoted as saying.
The exact number of missing women could be higher than 100 as some men may be reluctant to report their wives missing for fear of being accused of trafficking, Xinhua said.
The widening gender gap in China has fuelled bride trafficking and prostitution in the world's most populous country.
The gap between the sexes has long been attributed to China's "one-child" family planning policy, which has resulted in more male births due to a traditional preference for male children.
A census recently completed in the country found 118.06 males were born in China to every 100 baby girls over the past 10 years.
A study last year warned that over 24 million men of marrying age could find themselves without wives in 2020, a potentially explosive social problem.
zeker totaal onverwacht dit
.. ideaal voor mensensmokkelaars natuurlijk, nu is er pas echt een gat in de markt voor vrouwen daar. bron: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110821-295511.html
