Photos | China | Myanmar | Human Trafficking

A photographer documents the victims of human trafficking on the China-Myanmar border.

Burma's trafficking victims

By Katsuo Takahashi — Special to GlobalPost
Published: September 9, 2010 07:04 ET in Full Frame

[TRAFFICKING Monitor: Click on URL to view photos.]
Photos | China | Myanmar | Human Trafficking

This girl was nearly sold to a trafficker when she was 15. (Katsuo Takahashi/GlobalPost)

Full Frame features photo essays and conversations with photographers in the field.

Last year Chinese police freed 268 Burmese women who had been trafficked and forced into marriages with Chinese men. Human rights activists believe that this represents only a small fraction of the growing number of Burmese forced to marry Chinese husbands.

The causes of this disturbing trend lie both in China and Myanmar (also known as Burma). Seeking to escape Myanmar’s military regime and the horribly mismanaged economy, young women are often lured by recruiters who speak of well paid employment. Many of the victims are from rural areas near China’s Yunnan province and belong to Myanmar’s persecuted ethnic minorities.

Beijing's "one-child policy," combined with the long-held national preference for male heirs, has resulted in a grossly lopsided male to female ratio; 120:100 in 2005. The massive shortage of potential brides drives many lonely Chinese men to resort to buying a foreign spouse.

Those women who are lucky enough to have escaped often tell a remarkably similar story. Usually they are recruited in their rural village and brought to the bustling towns on the Chinese side of the border. At this point they are handed over to another trafficker who will take them as far away as Beijing for their "job interview." The price of a bride depends on her age and beauty, but a Chinese buyer will typically pay between 40,000 to 50,000 yuan (roughly $6,000-$7,500).

Once married, escape is difficult, as the new bride is forced to do housework or farm for long hours. Her husband or his family members watch her at all times. Those who have escaped tell stories of rape, physical abuse and dire loneliness.

About the photographer:

Katsuo Takahashi is a Japanese freelance photographer based in Tokyo. He is a "voice of the voiceless" and shoots them to show their soul. He has been working on a documentary about Burmese migrants, which includes "Lured into a Trap."

AFP: Japan's trainee programme 'human trafficking': lawyer

Image via Wikipedia

By Harumi Ozawa (AFP) – 6 hours ago

TOKYO — A Japanese human rights lawyer Thursday labelled a government-backed foreign trainee programme as a "form of human trafficking", saying dozens had died from apparent overwork.

Japan has invited tens of thousands of foreigners for industrial training programmes as low-wage apprentices, mostly from China, Indonesia and the Philippines, since the 1990s, officially so they can learn new skills.

"There is a huge difference between the purpose of this system and the reality," said Lila Abiko of the Lawyers' Network for Trainees in Japan.

"The purpose they say is the international contribution through transferring technologies through the person from a developing country. But actually this system functions to receive cheap unskilled labourers and exploit them."

The Japanese government, which allows little immigration of unskilled workers, started the trainees' programme in 1993, after the world's second-largest economy dived into a serious downturn.

Amid rising concern over abuses, the lawyer said that a record 35 workers from Asia had died in Japan in the year to March 2009 alone.

The Japan International Training Cooperation Organization (JITCO), which oversees the programmes, had said last year that of these 16 had died of heart and brain ailments, five in workplace accidents and one had committed suicide.

A JITCO spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The following year, 27 deaths were reported, including nine from heart and brain ailments and three suicides, Abiko said.

This month a Japanese labour office for the first time recognised that a Chinese intern employed under the programme had become the victim of what in Japan is called "karoshi" or "death through overwork."

Jiang Xiao Dong, 31, from Jiangsu province died after a heart attack in June 2008 after working more than 100 hours overtime the month before at a metal processing firm northeast of Tokyo.

Abiko, who represents Jiang's family, said one of his time cards showed he had worked 350 hours in November 2007 alone.

She said many of the interns had paid high deposits in their home countries, often equivalent to several years' income, to unauthorised local brokers who helped them register for the programme and travel to Japan.

"I think this is one form of human trafficking, especially when they are seized by the throat because of the deposit," she said.

One Chinese trainee, Li Quing Zhi, 34, said he came in 2007 to learn Japanese cooking but instead did manual work at a manufacturing workshop at minimum wage, working 150 hours of unpaid overtime a month.

After repeated complaints he was fired in March, leaving him stranded.

"I cannot go back to China without getting the payment that I deserve," said the man, who said his wife and two children are waiting for him.

Jorge Bustamante, UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, issued a warning in April about the trainee programmes.

The Justice Ministry was not available for comment when contacted late Thursday by AFP.

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AFP: Japan's trainee programme 'human trafficking': lawyer