Authorities detained women arrested on suspicion of prostitution—sometimes for months—and often forcibly returned foreign victims to their trafficking circumstances after they escaped and reported their abuses. MPS continued to coordinate the anti-trafficking interagency process and lead interagency efforts to implement the National Action Plan on Combatting Human Trafficking. Forced sexual exploitation of adults and children. However, state-sponsored forced labor continued to be an area of concern. Traffickers typically recruit them from rural areas and take them to urban centers, using a combination of fraudulent job offers and coercion by imposing large travel fees, confiscating passports, confining victims, or physically and financially threatening victims to compel their engagement in commercial sex. However, state-sponsored forced labor continued to be an area of concern. The efficacy of the government's previously reported victim assistance – including its eight border liaison offices with Burma, Vietnam, and Laos, victim funds, hotlines, and government-to-government agreements to assist victims – remained unclear. Implementation of a law placing foreign NGOs in mainland China under MPS supervision continued to impose burdensome requirements and restrictions on the activities of civil society organizations – including those able to provide services for trafficking victims and communities vulnerable to the crime. Instead of finding work, many are set up and sold into human … Forced begging by adults and children occurs throughout China. Human trafficking in China is a lucrative international 1. MPS promulgated written instructions to law enforcement officers throughout the country with the aim of clarifying procedures for identifying victims among individuals in prostitution and those who may be subjected to exploitation via forced or fraudulent marriage. The government’s 2018 annual report on modern slavery identified China as the fourth most common country from which potential victims of slavery were identified. Some are promised jobs abroad and confined to private homes upon arrival overseas, held in conditions indicative of forced labor, and compelled to conduct telephone scams. The first is a US Government State Department 2020 Report on human trafficking in Fiji which came out in June. The government decreased efforts to protect victims. State-sponsored forced labor continued to be an area of concern in China. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Bureaus and Offices Reporting Directly to the Secretary, Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Office of the U.S. The men—sometimes in partnership with their parents—often incur large debts to cover these fees, which they attempt to recover by subjecting the “brides” to forced labor or prostitution. Because the national referral mechanism was not universally implemented across law enforcement efforts, it was likely unidentified Chinese trafficking victims were also detained following arrest for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of having been subjected to trafficking. Xi Jinping. The impact of formal discriminatory employment policies barring Uighurs from jobs in many sectors may also place them at higher risk of exploitation. Authorities held a third annual inter-ministerial meeting to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts. of human trafficking in China range from forced marriage to forced labor, forced sex work, sale and profitable adoption of babies and human smuggling. Access to specialized care depended heavily on victims’ location and gender, and the extent to which victims benefited from these services was unknown. This Group page is meant to play a big role in stopping human trafficking. But the 2017 TIP report’s criticism of China is not that the government is making its best effort possible and yet trafficking persists. However, PRC authorities attempted on multiple occasions to formally extradite these individuals and charge them as criminals, raising further concerns on China’s screening and identification measures. Article 240 of the criminal code criminalized "abducting and trafficking of women or children," which it defined as a series of acts (e.g., abduction, kidnapping, purchasing, selling, sending, receiving) for the purpose of selling women and children; however, it did not link these acts to a purpose of exploitation as defined in international law. It continued to report statistics for... PROTECTION. The families of these detainees may be at elevated risk of exploitation in their absence. Unlike in prior years, the government did not report identifying any trafficking victims or referring them to protective services. Article 359 criminalized harboring prostitution or seducing or introducing others into prostitution, and prescribed a maximum of five years imprisonment and a fine; for the seduction of girls younger than the age of 14 into "prostitution," it prescribed a sentence of five years or more and a fine. These penalties were sufficiently stringent. Although Japan ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol of 2000 in 2017, human trafficking is not a criminal offence in accordance with international law. There are also reports of Chinese men and their parents deceiving Southeast Asian women and girls into fraudulent marriages in China, then confining them in forced concubinism for the purpose of pregnancy. The government did not report investigating or prosecuting any Chinese citizens for child sex tourism, despite widespread reports of the crime. Access to specialized care depended heavily on victims' location and gender, and the extent to which victims benefited from these services was unknown. The transplantation community, seeing widespread organ trafficking in China, urged the country’s leaders to make changes otherwise they will not be given opportunities to make any presentations or appear in any medical literature reports. The government reported maintaining at least 10 shelters specifically dedicated to care for trafficking victims, as well as eight shelters for foreign trafficking victims and more than 2,300 multi-purpose shelters nationwide that could accommodate trafficking victims. African and South American women are promised legitimate jobs in China and forced into prostitution upon arrival. Despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including by cooperating with international authorities to address forced and fraudulent marriages in China—a key trafficking vulnerability for foreign women and girls; seeking criminal accountability for officials complicit in commercial sex crimes that may have included sex trafficking; and continuing trainings for officials on victim identification and assistance, in conjunction with international organizations. There are also reports of Chinese men and their parents deceiving Southeast Asian women and girls into fraudulent marriages in China, then confining them in forced concubinism for the purpose of pregnancy. Chinese women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking within China. Although there were no confirmed reports of forced labor in Xinjiang during the reporting year, human rights organizations previously expressed concerns about forced labor under the “hashar” system of compulsory agricultural labor and under the auspices of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps—an economic and paramilitary organization with administrative control over several cities in the province. established that the selling and buying of persons, along with trafficking, was a banned offense "for any reason […] for whatever purpose according to the law." It funded a television show, used traditional and social media, and distributed posters and other materials at transportation and community centers to increase general understanding of the issue, including among vulnerable rural communities. As reported over the past five years, China is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. According to some reports, the Chinese government has also detained tens of thousands—and possibly hundreds of thousands—of Uighurs and sent them to special facilities for the purpose of “political reeducation.” The families of these detainees may be at elevated risk of exploitation in their absence. North Korean women are subjected to forced prostitution, forced marriage, and forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, and factories. A 2016 policy limiting the detention of such individuals to 72 hours remained in place. Approximately 600,000 workers willingly migrate into China on the basis of false promises regarding work opportunities, including escapees from North Korea. 22 In some cases, women may be coerced, 23 drugged, 24 and abducted 25 by traffickers. According to some reports, the Chinese government has also detained tens of thousands – and possibly hundreds of thousands – of Uighurs and sent them to special facilities for the purpose of "political reeducation." 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report - China RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHINA. It may be hard to believe for such a modern developed country, but human trafficking is a big problem in Japan. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) and the SPC reported providing anti-trafficking training for law enforcement or judicial officials at the city and provincial levels without providing detailed information on these efforts, including whether they were held with the assistance of international organizations. The government did not report investigating or prosecuting any Chinese citizens for child sex tourism, despite widespread reports of the crime. The government closed most RTL facilities by October 2015; however, the government reportedly converted some RTL facilities into state-sponsored drug rehabilitation facilities or administrative detention centers where, according to unverified reports, forced labor continues. The government reportedly began a series of pilot programs to enable Cambodian and Vietnamese citizens to enter legally into southern China for work in hopes of stemming illicit labor migration through especially porous sections of the border; the extent to which this mitigated trafficking vulnerabilities – or to which it was implemented – was unknown. Academics and experts noted the gender imbalance created by the previous One-Child Policy likely continued to contribute to trafficking crimes in China. Authorities did not disaggregate conviction data by the relevant criminal code statutes. MPS officials reportedly maintained a procedure to screen for trafficking indicators among individuals arrested for alleged prostitution offenses. African and Asian men are exploited on Chinese maritime vessels, working under conditions indicative of forced labor. Chinese men, women, and girls are forced to labor in restaurants, shops, agriculture, and factories in overseas Chinese communities. Among other issues, the report cited "forced and fraudulent marriages" of foreign women in China. Congolese men and boys experience conditions indicative of forced labor in Chinese-owned mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. MPS continued to coordinate the anti-trafficking interagency process and lead interagency efforts to implement the National Action Plan on Combatting Human Trafficking. Chinese men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in at least 57 other countries. China’s internal migrant population, estimated to exceed 180 million people, is vulnerable to trafficking, with Chinese men, women, and children subjected to forced labor in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories, some of which operate illegally and take advantage of lax government enforcement. However, based on China’s nonstandard definition of trafficking—which may include migrant smuggling, child abduction, forced marriage, and fraudulent adoption—the exact number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions remained unclear. Victims were legally entitled to request criminal prosecution and claim financial restitution through civil lawsuits against their traffickers; the government did not report whether any victims benefited from this provision. Foreign embassies in China reportedly provided shelter or other protective services to victims. Authorities held a third annual inter-ministerial meeting to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts. A 2016 opinion from the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) interpreting article 240, et seq. The government did not provide suspected North Korean trafficking victims with legal alternatives to repatriation. In 2013, the National People's Congress ratified a decision to abolish "Re-education through labor" (RTL), a punitive system in which individuals were subjected to extra-judicial detention involving forced labor, from which the government reportedly profited. The government reported maintaining at least 10 shelters specifically dedicated to care for trafficking victims, as well as eight shelters for foreign trafficking victims and more than 2,300 multi-purpose shelters nationwide that could accommodate trafficking victims. These penalties were sufficiently stringent. In August, the vice mayor of Dongguan and a former member of the National People's Congress were sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement in "organizing prostitution" in 2014, but it was unclear whether the criminal acts involved trafficking offenses. Authorities reported repatriating a number of victims in 2017 but did not provide further information, including whether they were Chinese or foreign. 73 Only the practices of buying and selling human beings and transporting kidnapped people across national borders are criminal offences. Illicit brokers increasingly facilitate the forced and fraudulent marriage of South Asian, Southeast Asian, and African women and girls to Chinese men for fees of up $30,000. The government did not report the number of investigations, prosecutions, or convictions involving cases of children or disabled persons forced to beg or engage in other illegal activities; however, according to media reports, county- and provincial-level authorities investigated at least 24 cases of disabled persons who may have been abducted or transferred for the purpose of sexual or labor exploitation. However, observers noted this assistance was ad hoc, and even less prevalent among front-line officers working farther inland, where some foreign victims escaped, reported these abusive circumstances to the authorities, and were summarily arrested and forcibly returned to their Chinese “husbands.” Because the national referral mechanism was not universally implemented across law enforcement efforts, it was likely that unidentified Chinese trafficking victims were also detained following arrest for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of having been subjected to trafficking. 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