BERNAMA - Chinese Women Taught To Avoid Human Traffickers

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March 08, 2010 15:22 PM

GUIYANG, March 8 (Bernama) -- Rural women in southwest China's Guizhou Province are asked to yell, scream and find a crowd if they ever face abduction by human traffickers, reports Xinhua news agency on Monday.

Human trafficking in China is a serious and long-term issue. The problem is particularly serious in rural areas. In Guizhou, women were abducted and sold as cheap or slave labour.

The province also holding classes in March to teach hundreds of rural women on how to protect themselves from the region's increasing trafficking problem.

According to Xinhua's report on Monday, the courses teach women that when they are abducted, they should try to find a crowd and call for help, and also try to create conversation with the abducters to get more information on locations and prospective buyers.

Wu Kunfeng, chairperson of the provincial Women's Federation also reminded these women not to forego any chances that can lead them to contact the police, and always try to write notes to tell people of their situation.

"We always tell them (rural women) that they should never give up hope of rescue or escape," Wu said.

However, Wu said the classes did not include a self-defence course, as organizers feared that women who put up a physical fight could be injured or killed.

"We've found that many women were abducted, while out looking for jobs. They were not educated and were vulnerable to criminals," said Wu.

"So we've realized that not only should we act to combat the increasing social problem, but also teach more people to better protect themselves," Wu said.

Greater efforts were needed in China to fight trafficking of women and children, as the crime "grossly violates human rights", said China's police chief Meng Jianzhu on March 1. Meng urged local governments to address economic and social problems that could be at the root of rampant human trafficking, such as poverty and unemployment among women, inadequate education of children of migrant workers in cities, and illegal use of child labourers.

The Public Security Ministry launched a crackdown on child abduction and trafficking in April 2009.

As of Oct 12, more than 2,000 children had been rescued from more than 1,700 human trafficking cases.

-- BERNAMA

BERNAMA - Chinese Women Taught To Avoid Human Traffickers

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