Informal Marriages Hide Human
Trafficking
Thursday, 12 April 2007
By B.
Bulgamaa
THE PROTECTION of rights and a positive legal environment
for the victims of human trafficking who become illegally married to Asian men
still does not exist yet, because of a lack of information and knowledge about
human trafficking. About 20 days ago, four Mongolian women with three of their
children requested from the Mongolian consulate in Erlian, China, to save them
from the violence of their husbands.
They were married to Chinese men
when they were introduced to each other in Mongolia, but have lived in China for
over ten years now. According to reports in the Mongolian media, all of them
were living in a half-starved state, they had no right to work for wages and
weren’t even allowed to go outside. They were beaten brutally by their husbands
and had other physical pressure applied. Some of them were unwillingly forced to
have sex by their husbands. But the accused husbands are demanding the return of
their wives from the consulate.
According to the consulate, the women
are considered as Mongolian nationals according to the Mongolian Citizens’
Registration and Information Center database. Their Mongolian nationality was
not revoked and, under law, Mongolians are not allowed dual citizenship.
Moreover, their children were born in Mongolia and their surnames are given by
their mothers. This is a sufficient basis for the women to return to Mongolia,
in the opinion of the consulate. The consulate sent the statement to relevant
official agencies in China and if the two countries agree, the police of both
countries will jointly examine the case.
According to Chinese law, an
individual indulging in sex trafficking would receive a punishment of 20 years
in prison. There are also very strict prohibitions on a person prostituting him
or herself.
Lack of information
But in Mongolia, there has
been just one court case related to human trafficking because victims do not
come to the police. The victims are afraid to face the police since they fear
they will be doubly punished for being part of an illegal action as well as
having a lack of information and knowledge about human trafficking.
The
psychological damage caused human trafficking by is not understood clearly and
everybody who lacks knowledge and information can become a victim. “All victims
of human trafficking in Mongolia are cheated by the information of the
intermediary when they first become a victim of this crime,” said B.
Ganbayasgakh, Leader of The Gender Equity Center at a seminar on the
issue.
The Gender Equity Center is the first organization to do
comprehensive research on the issue of Mongolian victims of foreign human
trafficking over the last two years. The center does local research, as well as
conducting studies and taking interviews from victims in China and Macao.
“Most of the victims of human trafficking had no awareness about what
sexual exploitation is and no information about human trafficking abroad. Also,
the victims had not studied about the country they were being sent to and they
didn’t know how they could contact the Mongolian council or where the Mongolian
embassies are located in these countries,” said Ganbayasgakh.
Some
Mongolian women who married Koreans have suffered from sex trafficking.
According to Ganbayasgakh’s research, Mongolia’s lacks a law which protects
women from becoming a sex traffic victim and protects human rights. When women
are to be married to foreigners, they should return to Mongolia before the
wedding to explain their new life’s conditions, she proposed. Lack of positive
legal regulations for victims exposes them to have their lives
ruined.
State inspectors said that the overwhelming desire of many
students to go abroad and leave Mongolia, only added to the problem of
trafficking. “We took a study from senior pupils of a secondary school asking,
‘Would you go abroad as a result of a person’s information or announcement by
the media promising help to enter a job with a high salary?’ Unfortunately, 75
percent of them said they would directly go,” said Captain B. Otgonbayar, Senior
Inspector of the State Investigation Office.