Pakistan arrests at least 8 Chinese for alleged human trafficking

AFP

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan arrested at least eight Chinese nationals for allegedly luring young Pakistani girls into fake marriages and then forcing them into prostitution in China, authorities confirmed to AFP Tuesday (May 7).

Four Pakistanis who helped to facilitate the fake marriages were arrested, said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The FIA expects more detentions as the investigation continues, an FIA spokesman said.

Human Rights Watch raised the alarm over "bride" trafficking from Pakistan to China in a report in April, where it said Islamabad should be "alarmed" at the reports.

In April a Pakistani news channel claimed it had gained entry to a match-making centre in Lahore where poor families would marry their daughters off to Chinese nationals in exchange for money and a visa.

"China is co-operating with Pakistani law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal matchmaking centres," the Chinese embassy in Islamabad said.

Terrorist organisations such as "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) have used human trafficking to help finance their causes and as a tool in recruitment. For example, to attract new fighters, ISIS kidnapped Yazidi women and girls in Iraq to be used as sex slaves for men who join the militant group.

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