Chinese media reports have shed light on a number of cases of Chinese nationals being trafficked to Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar and Cambodia, and coerced into participating in phone fraud schemes. In one harrowing account, a man named Xu Qian (pseudonym), 33 from Shandong Province, was tricked into traveling to Southwest China’s Yunnan Province before being trafficked to Myanmar.
Xu, along with 10 other victims, was confined in an office building under watch of two guards armed with knives. He said they were forced to engage in scams under the threat of violence, including beatings and confinement in a flooded cell. In a desperate attempt to escape, Xu sustained severe injuries from jumping off the building. After waking in a hospital, he was threatened by the crime organization’s kingpin with a gun. Fortunately, Xu managed to escape the hospital.
Another media report said that four vocational high school students were rescued by Chinese authorities after they had allegedly been trafficked to Myanmar for work. Such cases are on the rise as young people, eager for work amid the economic slowdown, become increasingly vulnerable targets.
On March 20, China’s Ministry of Public Security met with their counterparts in Myanmar and Thailand to discuss strategies to crack down on human trafficking.
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