A woman sits in front of a microphone in Phnom Penh in June as she recounts her story of being sold into slavery through an arranged marriage in China. Heng Chivoan
Shrinking down into her chair, an 18-year-old woman stared at her lap and wept yesterday after recounting her harrowing eight months as a trafficked bride in China, which ended in January when she escaped from her husband.
“My life was hell,” the teen, who asked not to be identified, said to a room of about 20 people at a news conference. “My husband forced me to have sex every day, and I was fed only rice and carrots.”
Like other victims in whose cases rights group Adhoc has intervened in 2014 – there have been 29 in all – the woman was talked into marrying into a Chinese family with hopes of a better life than the one she led as a garment worker in Kandal province.
Cases handled by Adhoc of women held captive in China after marrying a man there more than tripled in the first six months of this year over the same period in 2013, said Chann Sokunthea, the NGO’s head of women and children’s rights. Last year there were eight victims, four of whom were repatriated. Ten of the 29 women Adhoc have helped this year have returned to Cambodia.
With concerns growing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken the unprecedented measure of requesting – through the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh – that China no longer grant visas to single Cambodian women, spokesman Koy Kuong said yesterday. Staff at the embassy could not confirm the request.
In a report released yesterday, Adhoc calls for the Cambodian government to make concerted efforts to prevent the abuse that these brides suffer at the hands of brokers, husbands and families who treat them like slaves from the moment they arrive in China.
Among Adhoc’s recommendations to clamp down on the abuse are increased monitoring and the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Cambodia and China. Officials here have said that such a document is being worked on.
Underage when solicited by a broker, the victim who spoke yesterday said she used her older sister’s identification documents to get to China.
Upon arrival, marriage brokers took her passport and held her in a hotel room for a month until she was matched with a husband, who beat her when she refused sex, she said.
Her first escape attempt failed when she arrived at a Cambodian Embassy. Staff there turned her away because she had no passport. When she told them of the broker who had her passport, they called the broker, who returned her to her husband.
“I was hopeless,” she said.
Her second attempt succeeded when she was able to escape the house with a mobile phone and called her family, who filed a complaint with Adhoc. She survived in the mountains for days, she said, before receiving help.
Kuong yesterday said he was unsure of why this girl would accuse the Cambodian Embassy of negligence.
“We do not ignore anyone at all, in fact we try to help our Cambodian people who are victims,” Kuong said.
Abuse of Cambodian Women in China Increases
BY KUCH NAREN AND MATT BLOMBERG | the cambodia daily, JULY 31, 2014
After eight months of confinement and rape—and two forced abortions—Ratha, then 17, says she escaped from the home of the Chinese man she had been sold to and found her way to the Cambodian Consulate in Guangzhou.
“A Cambodian official there told me to go back to my abusive husband’s home to retrieve my passport, but I was afraid of being abused again so I refused to go back,” said Ratha, now 18, on the sidelines of a press conference Wednesday where local rights group Adhoc released a six-month report on Cambodian women being abused in China.
“Then, that official took the phone number of the broker [who sold me] and I was soon back in confinement at the broker’s home.”
Figures released by Adhoc on Wednesday show that in the first six months of 2014 at least 29 Cambodian women went to China—promised good jobs or wealthy husbands —and ended up in abusive marriages or sold into prostitution. The local rights group received only 8 such reports in the whole of 2013.
Most alarming, said Chhan Sokunthea, head of Adhoc’s program for women and children, was that Cambodian diplomats in China have reportedly declined to help their citizens.
“The officials at the Cambodian consulates and Embassy do not pay attention to solve [reported problems], instead leaving victims standing in front of the embassy in the cold weather, being bitten by mosquitoes and with no money to buy food,” Ms. Sokunthea said.
The trafficked and abused women, she added, often remained in the vicinity of a consulate or embassy for fear of being arrested while not in possession of a passport. Also, most speak little or no Chinese, leaving them unable to communicate with others.
Lim Mony, Ms. Sokunthea’s deputy, said that Cambodian officials in China were potentially profiting from brokers, who are legally required to have a marital status document for each potential bride translated into Chinese.
“It seems the officials at the consulates and embassy have good communication with brokers…the officials help translate [documents] for brokers in order to use them to register for marriage,” she said.
Contacted Wednesday, Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said that while “we do not allow our people to suffer without our help,” some trafficked Cambodians who did not report to the appropriate consulate may have been turned away.
“If she [a trafficked woman] goes to the wrong province, sometimes she will be sent to the embassy [in Beijing] or transferred to the consular general of her province because it can be a problem for administration,” Mr. Kuong said.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman also said he had requested that the Chinese Foreign Ministry instruct its embassies in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand—which act as a conduit for trafficked brides—to cease granting visas to single Cambodian women.
At the press conference Wednesday, Samphors, 33, another repatriated woman who went to China with the promise of a high-paying job in a garment factory, said she was sold to a man against her will.
She managed to flee her captor, she said, and took refuge in a forest before contacting Adhoc. But even after returning home she is not free of worry.
“What I am concerned about most is that my younger sister who is just 18 years old remains in China where is reportedly being raped by her husband,” she said.
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