Kidnapping in the PRC has risen to staggering proportions. In a one child only society that is desperate for a male heir, many have taken to hiring criminal gangs to bring them a son, even if it means stealing him from someone else. China as a nation thus far has failed to clamp down on this. Here are some of the sad stories: In a rush? For a quick synopsis, just read the red highlighted lines. I remember a friend of ours who has a son and daughter, was about to return to Shenzhen for a few weeks vacation last year. We had asked her how much would it cost for her kids to fly (assuming that her kids would go with her). She looked at us incredulously and stated quite plainly, that she wasn't taking them because the kidnapping risk was too great. It was simply too dangerous for them to be in China.
Still with the mentality of having a girl is a sin...I didn't know that this mentality still existed nowadays and to even steal someone's son is unbelievable...
Thanks Ralph for posting such an interesting article. Like mJ9, I didn't realise this kind of child trafficking of such a large scale existed in China, even today. I know how Chinese families see male heirs as important; just didn't realise that they would go to the extremity of kidnapping little children. Very eye opening article.
China is such a beautiful place with great people. However, its social underbelly is like that of any other country; a horror to behold. Many people (especially PRC nationalists) don't want to see or hear negative news, and actively work to suppress information. My take is, the only way that things will change for the better is to rip away the shrouds of secrecy and expose the horrors for what they are. Only then, can people force society to deal with these scourges that continue to victimize the Chinese.
There's a related story on Kidnapped Wives in the Documentaries on China thread I started a few weeks ago. It's horrific to see that certain societal needs had relied on a criminal solution. What really boggles the mind is that the PRC government not only allows this by it's nonfeasance, but in many instances, members of government have been suspected of being directly complicit. :ugh:
Its really disturbing to watch this. Some of the Chinese babies have found their way to the US ? From : http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4787761&page=1 U.S. Adoptions Fueled by Guatemalan Kidnappings Demand for Guatemalan Children Is So High, Baby Snatching Is Rampant By HAROLDO MARTINEZ and RUSSELL GOLDMAN GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala May 13, 2008 — Two years ago, Raquel Par boarded a bus in her hometown of Tecpan, Guatemala, with her baby daughter for the 90-minute ride to the country's capital. When she arrived in Guatemala City, however, she was alone. "I took a bus that left me at Bolivar Avenue, where I had to wait to catch another one. In the meantime, I met a woman that was also waiting for the bus and she began chatting with me and my little girl. After a few minutes, she began to talk about God, and I trusted her. She offered to buy me a drink, and when I accepted, she went to a nearby store. She came back a few minutes later with a soda in a plastic bag and I drank it. Soon, I started to feel dizzy," Par told ABCNEWS.com. "When I regained consciousness, my little girl was gone." Children are big business in Guatemala, where international adoption is estimated to be a $100 million industry, making orphans the country's second-most lucrative export after bananas. With tens of thousands of dollars to be made on the sale of each child, and with little government regulation, a fertile black market has developed to sell children all over the world, especially the United States. Children are routinely kidnapped and parents regularly coerced to sell their children, say government officials and human rights activists. One in every 100 Guatemalan children is adopted by an American family, the highest per capita adoption rate in the world, and 95 percent of all Guatemalan children who are adopted go to the U.S. The U.S. State Department says approximately 29,400 Guatemalan children have been adopted by Americans since 1990, and local sources peg the average cost at $30,000 per child. "The agencies deceive Americans looking to adopt. They guarantee them a healthy baby and then ask for money to help the mother, money for the lawyer, money for the bureaucracy. It can cost $50,000 for a couple to adopt. The main winners are the lawyers and the gangs that kidnap children. It's a real mafia," said Norma Cruz, director of the women's rights group Sobrevivientes (Survivors) Foundation, which has brought 15 members of kidnapping gangs to the police in the past six months. American families adopted 4,728 Guatemalan children last year, according to the State Department, second only to the number of orphans coming from China. Guatemalan Government Steps In In January, the Guatemalan government implemented a new law and temporarily suspended adoptions following the high-profile raid of the Casa Quivira orphanage last August. In the raid, 46 children intended for American families were seized by Guatemalan government officials, and at least five women were found who had been issued false identities to obscure their true relationship to the children they delivered to the orphanage. Neither the U.S. State Department nor Guatemalan officials would estimate the number of kidnapped children who end up adopted by American families, but Cruz estimates it could be as many as 50 percent of all U.S. adoptions of Guatemalan children. Last week the Guatemalan government said it would investigate and put on hold each of the 2,286 pending international adoptions, of which nearly half are missing proper documents or include other irregularities, according to Associated Press interviews with the Guatemalan attorney general. The government's new focus on pending international adoptions offers little solace to Par. Human rights investigators believe her daughter was adopted by an American family more than a year ago. Last week, Par and three other mothers of kidnapped children began a hunger strike outside the presidential palace. Daughter Tracked by Investigators For days after Par's daughter, Heidy then 1 year old went missing, Par visited every police station she could to file a report. Three months later, with pressure from the Sobrevivientes Foundation, police found the kidnapper. Soon after, they believe they found documents that confirm the girl, who turned 3 on May 1, was adopted by an American couple. Six months ago, Sobrevivientes investigators and a team from the Guatemalan national police department found a passport and adoption documents, issued by the Migration Department, to a girl Heidy's age under a different name. Investigators recognized the girl in the passport photo. It was Heidy. The foundation would not reveal the name or location of the American family that they believe adopted Heidy, because the investigation remains active. The Guatemalan government is overseeing the investigation, and Par has given a DNA sample in an effort to confirm her maternity. Cruz said the case could soon be closed and Par reunited with her daughter. The American couple, like many who adopt from Guatemala, likely believed they were dealing with a reputable agency and had no idea the baby had been kidnapped, according to Cruz. International Adoptions Dip On the whole, international adoptions by American parents have been slowly declining over the past four years. There were 23,000 babies adopted from foreign countries in 2004, and just 19,613 in 2007, according to the State Department. Adoption rates have fallen as traditional source countries, like Cambodia, have banned international adoptions outright, and others, like South Korea, have encouraged domestic adoptions. But the opposite is true of U.S.-Guatemala adoptions. With fewer options available to them, Americans have, in the same period, increasingly turned to Guatemala. Orphan visas issued to Guatemalan children rose from 3,262 in 2004 to 4,728 in 2007. In Guatemala, a national industry has developed around adoption, with specialty lawyers offering their services, and hotels catering to the thousands of American couples who visit for the sole purpose of finding a child. As a result, the measures kidnappers have taken to get a piece of the action have become increasingly brazen. 'There Was Nothing I Could Do' "My daughter, Angely Lisset Hernandez Rodriguez, was kidnapped as I was entering my home," said Loida Rodriguez, one of the mothers on hunger strike outside the offices of Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom. "A woman appeared in my backyard and grabbed her out of my arms. There was nothing I could do." Rodriguez's daughter was taken from her a year ago and would be 3 years old now. She said police were indifferent to her case and offered virtually no help in finding the kidnappers. Rodriguez still does not know the fate of her daughter or if she ended up in an orphanage. Incidents of kidnapping, government officials hope, will decline, now that the country is implementing the Hague Convention on Adoption, an international treaty that sets guidelines for adoptions. Guatemala also passed its own adoption law in January. "Under the law, adoptions are not supposed to produce a profit for anybody," said Nidia Anguilar Del Cid, an official in the office of the government's human rights ombudsman. "The money for an adoption is only supposed to go toward legal costs and bureaucratic paperwork, which doesn't cost anywhere near the $50,000 some lawyers have charged." For the past 28 years, private lawyers have handled the adoptions, but when the ban is lifted sometime next year, the government will play an increased role in ensuring children are properly vetted. Much like Guatemala, the U.S. only recently ratified the Hague Adoption Convention, despite being a longtime signatory. As a result, Americans will only be permitted to adopt through agencies accredited by a national organization and registered with the State Department. Prior to the U.S. implementing the treaty early this year, there was no national organization which vetted or tracked the agencies, which find Guatemalan orphans for American families. "The Council on Accreditation has been designated by the Department of State to be the sole national accrediting body for agencies in the U.S. involved with children from countries that are also signatories to Hague. To date, we have accredited 195 adoption service providers and 64 providers are still in the process," said Richard Klarberg, president of the council. "Before [the council] began accrediting agencies there was no way to know if an agency was legit," he said. Agencies that pair parents with children from countries that have yet to join the convention still do not need accreditation, which means, according to Klarberg, "children from one country are more closely vetted than those from non-signatory countries. There's a double standard." Despite greater government intervention, for American families looking to adopt and the agencies that represent them, the first line of defense to ensure children have not been kidnapped, are the local orphanages. Mirna Velazquez is director of the Children's Home, an orphanage that was established in Guatemala City 32 years ago, and which, she says, carefully vets all the children who are brought to its gates. "We guarantee the origins of all the children we put up for adoption. We will not accept a child bought directly from a mother or relative, but only those placed here by the courts," she said. Adoptions can go forward legally and in the best interests of the birth mother, child and adoptive parents, said Cruz. But not without cracking down on the black market. "The dark side of these adoptions is the fact that, a noble process intended to help children and allow couples to achieve their dream, has been denigrated and transformed into a market where children are treated like merchandise and gangsters are made into millionaires. We cannot continue to export our babies like fruits and animals or any other product. This is shameful." Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
From : http://www.catwinternational.org/factbook/usa1.php United States Trafficking | Prostitution | Pornography | Organized and Institutionalized Exploitation "It is a violation of human rights when women are trafficked, bought and sold as prostitutes." (Hillary Clinton, Lviv Opera House, Lviv, Ukraine, "First Lady To Fight Prostitution," AP Online, 18 November 1997) TRAFFICKING Trafficking in women plagues the United States as much as it does underdeveloped nations. Organized prostitution networks have migrated from metropolitan areas to small cities and suburbs. Women trafficked to the United States have been forced to have sex with 400-500 men to pay off $40,000 in debt for their passage. (Avita Ramdas, president of the Global Fund for Women sponsoring a recent prostitution conference, Brad Knickerbocker, "Prostitution’s Pernicious Reach Grows in the US" Christian Science Monitor, 23 October 1996) In mid-1997 in Queens New York police were informed of more than 60 Mexican immigrants including 12 children ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years, being held in "involuntary servitude". (Deborah Sontag, "Deaf Mexicans Are Found in Forced Labor," New York Times, 20 June 1997) The United Nations now lists Mexico as the number one center for the supply of young children to North America. Most are sold to rich, childless couples unwilling to wait for bona fide adoption agencies to provide them with a child. The majority are sent to international pedophile organizations. Many times the children are snatched while on errands for their parents. Often they are drugged and raped. Most of the children over 12 end up as prostitutes. Hector Ramirez, a former deputy, or Mexican Member of Parliament, stated that "many of the state and city authorities [are] doing absolutely nothing to stop what is going on." (Allan Hall, The Scotsman, 25 August 1998) 5,000 women of Chinese descent are in prostitution in Los Angeles. (Kathryn McMahon, Daniel B. Wood, "A Crusade to Free Captive Daughters," Christian Science Monitor, 12 March 1998) Chinese women are being trafficked into the United States for brothels in New York and North Carolina. They are held in $40,000 debt bondage. ("Chinese women ‘forced into prostitution’ in US," BBC, 3 March 1998) Traffickers force Chinese immigrants into indentured servitude, women into prostitution and men into the restaurant business. In September 1998, 153 men and 21 women, including 35 juveniles, arrived in San Diego, California from China via Mexico, after paying smugglers $30,000. In 1997, 69 and in 1993, 650 Chinese immigrants were intercepted in the same area. If caught by immigration (INS) officials, most will be sent back to China, unless they receive political asylum. The smugglers may face jail time in the United States. (Paula Story, "Chinese Immigrant Boat Reaches US," Associated Press Online, 19 September 1998) Traffickers in Miami were receiving Asian children who were being trafficked through Europe by Japanese and Chinese criminal gangs. In one month, at least 15 children were smuggled into the United States for prostitution. ("Pedophilia ring uncovered in Italy," USA Today, Nov. 1997) 25 distinct Russian organized crime groups are operating in the United States in the areas of prostitution, fraud, money laundering, murder, extortion and drug trafficking and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has approximately 250 pending investigations targeting Russian gangs in 27 states. (Barbara Starr, "Former Soviet Union a playground for organized crime: A gangster’s paradise," ABC News, 14 September 1998) Case Five people have been accused of planning to traffic two Chinese women to Arkansas in the United States. (Associated Press, 8 July 1998) Girls, as young as 13, were trafficked from Mexico via Texas, into Florida and held under $2,000 debt bondage for smuggling fees by the Cadenas, a criminal Mexican family, themselves illegal immigrants. The brothels, in operation since 1996, catered exclusively to Hispanic migrant workers. (John Pacenti, "Family Accused in Prostitution Ring," Associated Press, 25 February 1998) Marvin Hersh, a Florida Atlantic University professor, was charged with alien smuggling and passport fraud for going to Honduras and bringing a teen-age boy back to Boca Raton, Florida for sex. Affidavits described Hersh as a longtime pedophile who traveled to Central America and Asia to find victims. He passed the boy off as his son. Hersh’s friend, Nelson Jay Buler, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was charged with travelling for the purpose of illegal sexual contact with a minor, and aggravated sexual abuse of a child in Honduras. According to Title 18, Section 2423, a federal statute in the US, it is a crime for any American citizen to travel abroad with the intent to sexually abuse children. Sentences can be up to 10 years of imprisonment plus fines of US$ 250,000 ("Bond set for man accused of Honduras juvenile-sex trips," Associated Press) Illegal immigrants from Asia were forced into prostitution to repay a $40,000 fee for their transport. In one case in California, the women were in their late teens or twenties. Three to six women were at each house and often made as much as $5,000 a week for the traffickers. (Midway City Police, Geoff Boucher and Steve Carney, "6 Arrested in Raid on Alleged Brothel," Los Angeles Times, 13 September 1997) An international trafficking ring in San Jose, California and Toronto, Canada, trafficked women from Southeast Asia for prostitution. The women were prostituted under debt bondage to 100s of men to pay off a $40,000 debt for their passage. (Bill Wallace & Benjamin Pimental, "San Jose Women Held After Raid in Sex Slave Cases," San Francisco Chronicle, 13 September 1997) Roman Israilov of Brooklyn, New York enslaved and raped a 20-year-old immigrant Russian woman and sexually abused her. He had intended later to sell her. Police who were notified by a neighbor arrested him. The police were having problems questioning the woman because she had just recently arrived and spoke very little English. (Frank Edozien and Larry Celona, "Man Kept Immigrant as His Sex Slave: Cops," New York Post, 15 September 1997) Donald A. Young, a Pennsylvania lawyer is being charged with raping and imprisoning two Honduran women he met through magazine ads. He is also accused of abusing the women’s children in his home. Authorities believe he also imprisoned several other foreign women. He had bars on the windows and deadbolts on the doors. ("Man is charged with raping women he brought to US," Associated Press, 16 August 1997) Richard Blau, a Manhattan businessman, has been charged with abusing an immigrant Burmese woman whom he kept chained in his bedroom for nearly two weeks after offering her work as a cleaning woman. (UPI, 20 August 1997) Latvian Women Trafficked: At least 5 Latvian women were trafficked to Chicago and held in slavery-like conditions, forced to strip at Chicago nightclubs. The women would earn as much as $600 a night in strip clubs, but were forced to give all but $20 to the traffickers. The women were contacted by Alex Mishulovich, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia, who posed as a nightclub owner. He and his wife, Rudite Pede, approached the young woman on the streets of Riga, Latvia, and told them they could earn up to $60,000 a year dancing for men who wouldn't be allowed to grope them. Mishulovich, who claimed allegiance with the Chechnyan mafia, helped the women obtain immigration papers, but as soon as they arrived in Chicago he took their papers, locked them in apartments or hotel rooms, beat them and threatened to kill them. He told the women his mobster associates would kill their families in Latvia if they refused to obey him. At times, he held a gun to a woman's head or put a knife to her throat. Mishulovich was charged with visa fraud, peonage - keeping someone in servitude- and conspiracy to commit peonage. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted. Pede was charged with visa fraud and conspiracy to commit peonage; she faces 30 years in prison. Three other people were also charged. The trafficking ring was uncovered by an American embassy official who became suspicious when many of the women listed the same address where they would be staying in the United States. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Eric Fidler, "Two charged for enslaving stripper," Associated Press, September 1998) Official Response and Action United States President Bill Clinton, and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi together have officially recognized and addressed trafficking in women and children for the purpose of forced prostitution. They have established a working group in order to deal with the problem. ("Clinton, Prodi discuss slave trade," United Press International, 6 May 1998) Mail Order Brides There have been 5,000 Filipina mail order brides entering the United States every year since 1986, a total of 55,000 as of 1997. (Gabriela, Statistics and the State of the Philippines, 24 July 1997) Two Honduran "mail-order-brides" were imprisoned with their children and raped by attorney Donald A. Young in Pennsylvania. Young was charged with rape, assault, false imprisonment, harassment, stalking, and child abuse (Boston Globe, 6 August 1997) The American mail-order bride industry has become a multi-million dollar business, marketing women from developing countries as potential brides to men in Western nations. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998) In the United States, mail-order-bride agencies are developing everywhere. One business, A Foreign Affair, has had more than 15,000 male buyers since it began three years ago. Now there are 200 to 250 of these companies in the United States, a third of which started in 1997. At least 80 of these focus exclusively on Russian and Eastern European women. A Foreign Affair has about 3,500 women from Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. The business claims they are responsible for an engagement or marriage every week. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998) One Internet mail order bride service, RWL, Russian Women’s List, has more than 800 members, including military personnel and computer programmers. Ken Wells of the United States bought the addresses of about 600 women from 15 international marriage agencies over the Internet. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998) A Bethesda MD based Encounters International mail order bride company began in July 1993. The business claims it has had 104 marriages, 55 engagements and four divorces as of February 1998. (Natasha Spivak, Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998) Congress passed legislation that requires mail order bride agencies to give information about marriage fraud, legal residency and domestic violence to women in their agencies or risk $20,000 fines. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), estimated that 2,000 to 3,500 American men find wives through such agencies each year. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998) In 1995, a computer lab technician shot and killed his Philippine wife in a Seattle courtroom. In 1996, a Texas man was convicted of murdering his fourth wife, a Philippine bride. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)
A good sign that China is beginning to take a serious look at what is a serious human tragedy and criminal industry: In a rush? For a quick synopsis, just read the red highlighted lines. In one sense, I'm gladdened that the PRC central government has finally decided to take a serious hard look at the kidnapping issue. However, I'm still worried that, while a great first step, this really does very little to protect victims. DNA sampling only helps a victim after the crime has been committed, and only after a victim has been found. What is needed first and foremost is persistent and punishing pressure from Beijing on local authorities to stop the kidnappings before they happen. But there in lies the main problem; tellingly, many of these crimes have been perpetrated, or aided and abetted by the local authorities (eg. police, other municipal or regional officials) themselves. IMHO, even without the advent of a new DNA database, if the central government were to simply clamp down on this specific type of local crime or corruption, it would dramatically reduce the number of cases even before they were to happen. That is, if Beijing makes these sorts of crimes not worth the profit motive (by punishment, fines, et cetera), it would already do a tremendous amount in prevention. What is important to see here, is that Beijing cannot totally ignore public sentiment. IMHO, keeping public pressure on the PRC government remains the most productive driving force toward eradicating this heart breaking crime against the Chinese people.
It's a good initiative but still,i don't think every parents will let 'their' child having DNA tests.
this is really sad. There are some sick people out in this world..... Makes me scared to even let the children out.. But I really feel for these people who are trafficked and forced into prostitution especially the children. Why are there so many sick people, especially paedophiles who are sent to prison then let out after short sentences then reoffend then another short sentence, these people always reoffend they need to put them somewhere forever or shot...
