Description:
Executive Summary:
"The Palaung Women?s Organization (PWO) has documented 72 cases of actual or suspected
trafficking involving 110 people, which took place along the China-Burma border, mostly
during the past six years. The majority of those trafficked were young Palaung women from
tea farming communities in Namkham, Namhsan and Mantong townships.
PWO surveys in villages from which women have been trafficked show that up to 41% of the
population have migrated to work elsewhere. Large scale migration began after the surrender
in 2005 of the Palaung State Liberation Army, which had controlled Palaung areas under a
ceasefire agreement since 1991. There has been a surge of Burma Army troops and proxy
militia into the area since the surrender, who have imposed increased controls and taxes on
agriculture and trading. Together with rising prices of food commodities from Central Burma,
and increasing costs of health and education, this has meant that tea farmers can no longer
earn a living and young people have to leave home to survive. This has led to an alarming
increase in the incidence of trafficking of women, men and children, mainly to China.
Most of those trafficked were tricked into travelling to China by being offered well-paid
jobs on farms or in factories. In 25% of the cases, women were forced to marry Chinese
men, with brokers receiving up to 25,000 Yuan (approx 3,800 USD) for the transaction. 10%
were forced into the sex trade. Some ended up being used as live feed for leeches. Known
destinations were mainly in Yunnan province, but some ended up as far east as Shandong.
A disturbing trend is that eleven of the cases were children under ten, fi ve of whom were
under one year old. Most were boys. Some of these children were simply kidnapped from
their homes, but others were sold by parents who were alcohol or drug users. As highlighted
by PWO in earlier reports, opium cultivation in Palaung areas has skyrocketed in recent years
due to the profi ts being made by the Burma Army and its militia from the drug trade. This has
led to increasing addiction among Palaung men, who not only sell off all their possessions to
buy drugs but also their children.
In only eleven cases were the traffi cked persons able to escape, some after years of forced
marriage to Chinese men. Family members seeking to trace traffi cked persons sought help
in vain from local Burmese authorities and social organizations. In some cases perpetrators
were arrested and jailed, but several paid bribes or fines and were then released.
The Burmese military regime has passed anti-trafficking legislation since 2005 and set up
special anti-trafficking units, including at Muse on the China-Burma border. However, these
measures appear to have had little effect, due to failure to address the structural root causes
driving human trafficking.
The situation looks set to worsen following the November 2010 elections. Burma?s military
rulers ensured that their cronies won in the Palaung areas, including well-known druglord
Kyaw Myint, who is now an MP for Namkham. Militarization has continued unabated, and
new military offensives by the regime against ethnic ceasefi re groups have ignited fighting
once again in northern Shan State. Even before the new parliament was convened, a new
national budget was approved which continued to prioritize military spending far above
education and health.
Radical structural political changes are thus urgently needed to address the problem of human
trafficking and migration in Burma.
PWO therefore makes the following recommendations:..."
Source/publisher:
Palaung Women?s Organization
Date of Publication:
2011-06-14
Date of entry:
2011-06-15
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English, Burmese
Local URL:
Format:
pdf pdf
Size:
2.31 MB 2.47 MB