Vice President U Henry Van Thio said Myanmar people fall prey to human traffickers because of the country’s lack of jobs, low incomes, natural disasters and displacement caused by armed conflicts. 

For example, Ma Thet Mar (not her real name) of Hlaing Tharyar township, Yangon Region, was trafficked to China last year after a friend invited her to work in China as a housemaid for K1.8 million (US$1170) per month, which is far more than the pay of professional domestic workers.

“I agreed,” she said, “and they gave my family K200,000 in advance.”

She immediately headed off to Shweli city in Shan State, which borders China. At the border, a Chinese man and a Myanmar woman who spoke Chinese picked her up in a car.

“It took one day of driving to reach the town where they lived. They brought me to a clinic for a blood test.”

After two days a man came to pick her up. The couple told her to go with the man or she would have to refund the cost of her trip, including the K200,000 payment to her family.

“I had no choice but to go with the Chinese man,” she said. “But after one month, I ran away and went to a police station, where I begged the officers to return me to Myanmar.”

She returned to Myanmar in March last year.

Law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) estimate that at least 300 people are trafficked every year, with the majority being sold as brides in China.

“Human trafficking victims are sold as Chinese brides after going through the Chinese border gate,” said a high-ranking officer of the Yangon Region Police Force. 

“Myanmar women who got married in China or were trafficking victims themselves are persuading acquaintances back home who have financial problems to come to China,” he added. 

According to the Anti-Human Trafficking Force, from January to June 2018, there were 107 human trafficking cases with 181 victims. A total of 292 human traffickers have been charged. Yangon Region had the highest rate of human trafficking, followed by Shan State. 

Police Captain Myo Ko Ko of the force said Chinese nationals living in the Philippines are also trying to lure Myanmar nationals with promises of good jobs.

“The Chinese nationals living in Manila cannot use Facebook, so they use WeChat to try to lure Chinese-speaking Myanmar women by promising jobs with good incomes and paid travel expenses. But the jobs turn out to be at illegal gambling dens, and they refuse to pay their salaries,” he said. 

Many women victims of human trafficking are trying to escape marriage problems at home, according to the police. But there are cases of girls under the age of 16 being lured by traffickers after establishing personal relationships with them.

Daw Aye Swe of Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan township, said she nearly lost her daughter to traffickers.

“My daughter was disappeared while going to school. I reported it to the police, and after about two days, they told me she had been found at the border area,” she said. “When I looked at my daughter, she seemed to be under the influence of drugs.”

Daw Aye Swe said that her daughter had told her that she had gone out with her boyfriend who gave her a soda drink, and after she drank it, she could not remember anything.

The police Human Trafficking Department said that trafficking is not limited to foreign destinations. Many of the victims are sexually exploited or forced to work in other towns and cities.

A senior officer at the Yangon Regional Police said that one of the most common destinations for trafficking victims is the fishing industry.

“They need workers for fishing boats in Ayeyarwady and Mon regions, but these workers are not paid proper salaries and are forced to live in bad conditions,” he said. 

Fishing businesses in Phyapon township of Ayeyarwady, and Ye and Asin townships of Mon find cheap workers via brokers.

Brokers don’t tell the trafficking victims anything about working conditions and take their salaries in advance. They also cut the salaries, so the victims have to work for months at sea without any benefits. 

A survey by World Vision Myanmar, an NGO working against human trafficking, found that most trafficking victims are poor and uneducated and don’t know how to seek help from the authorities, said Daw Khin Myo Thant, a project manager of the NGO. 

She called on the government to hold training programmes to make youths more aware of human trafficking and how to avoid it.

Authorities urged the public to call 09-49555666, 09-49555777, or 09-4955588, if they suspect human trafficking.