Sold to China

Trafficking of women from throughout Burma to be forced brides in China

This report, based on interviews with 187 female trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT between 2019 and 2023,

reveals that the demand for brides continues to be the main factor fuelling trafficking of women from Burma to

China, and that women from throughout Burma are being trafficked for this purpose

Number of bride trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT in 2019 tripled from the previous year, before decreasing

due to border closures and travel restrictions as a result of the Covid pandemic and escalated conflict after the

2021 military coup in Burma

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during which time women began being trafficked to Chinese-run cyber scam

centers in northeast Shan State.

Over half of all bride trafficking survivors came from states and regions of Burma not adjoining China, unlike in

previous years, when most survivors came from Kachin or northern Shan State.

Most of the survivors were recruited in person, by relatives or “friends” linked to the extensive trafficking

networks that have developed across Burma and China as a result of decades of bride trafficking. Many brokers

were themselves originally trafficked as brides to China.

Most women were offered well-paying jobs at factories or farms in China to lure them across the border before

being forced to be brides. Increased smuggling of workers from Burma to meet factory labour demands in China’s

eastern industrial zones has been useful for traffickers, both as a pretext to entice women across the border, and

enabling them to prey on those already in China.