When Lamung Bawk Din, now 26, jumped out of her husband's second-storey
window, she had only one thought in her mind: "If I stay here any
longer, I will go crazy."
This happened in 2008, and Bawk Din was 19 years old. As an ethnic Kachin
woman from northern Shan State, one of several conflict zones in Myanmar,
Bawk Din had already lived through war, conflict, and ethnic persecution at
home. With only a primary school education, a sick mother and numerous
younger siblings to look after, Bawk Din did what many Shan and Kachin girls
do: She crossed illegally into China to find work.
That's when her life, already plagued with troubles, took a turn for the
worse.
After working for three months at a sugar plantation in Jinghong on the
Myanmar-China border earning $8 a day, Bawk Din was lured by an acquaintance
to travel further into China for a better job. Bawk Din took the bait. She
did not know she was to become a forced bride and virtual prisoner to a man
she had never met.
"They locked me inside the compound because they knew I was from
Myanmar and they worried that I would run away." - Bawk Din, former
forced bride
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According to the Kachin Women's Association
of Thailand (KWAT), the vast majority of trafficking cases on the
Myanmar-China border involve migrant workers who cross illegally into China
due to extreme poverty or displacement from conflict.
Kachin and Shan women are especially easy targets for traffickers, said Awn
Nang, anti-trafficking programme coordinator for KWAT, because many "do
not speak Chinese, do not have border passports or identification, and are
quick to trust others".
Such was the case with Bawk Din and five other women who journeyed for three
days by train to Beijing. Once there, the women were split up - Bawk Din
never saw them again. Her escort brought her to his family, where she
discovered she was to wed his younger brother.
"When I told the family that I wanted to go home, they said 'no, we
already paid for you,'" Bawk Din told Al Jazeera. The family had paid
about $6,500 to her trafficker in Jinghong, and their plans for her included
producing children.
Gender imbalance in China
The 2013 US State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report stated
that the demand for such brides is growing in China, where the one child
policy and a cultural preference for male children has created a significant
gender imbalance. According to the report, the ratio of male to female births
is 118 to 100. The Chinese Academy of Social Science estimates that by the
year 2020, men of marriageable age will outnumber women by 24 million.
This need for marriageable women is exacerbated by rapid development within
China, said Paul Buckley of the United Nations Action for Cooperation against
Trafficking in Persons.
"It's not just about the gender imbalance, but it's also related to
increasing migration in China… A lot of women are leaving villages and going
to work in industrial centres," Buckley told Al Jazeera. In a country
with a strong cultural imperative to have children, men in rural communities
are left with fewer potential partners, and families have begun to look for
alternative means for marriage.
A 2008 KWAT
report documenting 163 trafficking cases, found that most forced brides were
married to farmers. Some women reported being shown to many men, sometimes in
marketplaces, before being chosen. However, the issue is not strictly a rural
one, and a few women, like Bawk Din, were taken to larger cities like
Beijing.
Five days after Bawk Din arrived at the house in Beijing, she was forced to
participate in a wedding ceremony. From then on, she was placed under virtual
house arrest.
"They locked me inside the compound because they knew I was from Myanmar
and they worried that I would run away," she said. "I never had a
chance to go outside, and I only ate what they gave me."
Eventually, Bawk Din was allowed to call her mother, who was shocked to find
her daughter had been abducted and married to a man in China.
"My mother was looking for me but … China is very big," said Bawk
Din. "She didn't have the money to pay for the transportation to look
for me."
Cultural stigmatism
With possessions, homes, land, and livelihoods seized or destroyed in
conflict, few Kachin and Shan families have the resources to locate missing
family members. Additionally, there is little recourse against the cultural
stigmatism that follows if a trafficking victim does manage to return home.
"Survivors often face discrimination after they return to their
communities," Awn Nang told Al Jazeera. "Some parents won't allow
marriages to trafficking survivors, and most survivors don't get the same
livelihood opportunities."
After nearly a year of being held captive, Bawk Din secreted away about $162,
enough to travel to the Myanmar border. One morning, she ripped out the
screen from her second-storey window and jumped over the compound fence. She
fled to a train station, where police detained her because she did not have
identification. Fearing she might be returned to Chang Saan if she told them
she was married, she said she had come to China to work. The police wrote a
recommendation for her return to Myanmar.
Bawk Din arrived home on the day after Christmas, a meaningful day for the
Kachin, who are predominantly Christian. Neighbours and friends thought she
had come home for the holiday, not realising she had just escaped from a
forced marriage. Bawk Din did not correct them for fear of being ostracised.
Eventually, word spread that Bawk Din had been trafficked, and she decided to
be open about her experiences. She was lucky enough to fall in love with a
Kachin man who did not reject her for her past - but his mother did.
"When my husband and I visit my mother-in-law, she doesn't talk to
me," Bawk Din said. "The only thing she talks about is how we will
divorce."
For many trafficking victims, hiding the past is their only defence against
ostracism. Consequently, very few trafficking cases are reported, and the
Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the proclaimed government of Kachin
State, struggles to enforce anti-trafficking policies.
"We cannot assess every trafficked person. Only when citizens contact
aid organisations do we know that trafficking has occurred," said Labang
Doi Pisa, chairman of the KIO-run IDP and Refugee Relief Committee.
Renewed conflict in Myanmar
Other recent factors aggravate the situation. Since June 2011, renewed
conflict between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army has
created more than 100,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kachin and
Shan states. As homes and livelihoods are destroyed, many cross into China
for refuge or work, and some never come back, said Labang.
As for Bawk Din, life is still full of challenges. She, too, has been
displaced by the renewed conflict. She now lives in an IDP camp in Shan
State, and without skills or capital, she earns money by collecting jungle
vegetables to sell at the market. But she is happy to be with a husband of
her choice.
"We fell in love," she said. "Today we are okay. But we are
poor. And we survive for each day, every day."
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