Crackdown targets women, child trafficking

Authorities in China have launched a new round of a nationwide special operation to combat abduction and trafficking in women and children, which began on Monday and will run through the end of this year.

The operation aims to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women and children.

A national deployment meeting for the special operation was held on Monday, with multiple central departments participating, including the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the ministries of public security, education and civil affairs.

Governments and related departments in various regions are required to meticulously gather clues regarding abduction and trafficking, conduct swift investigations and rescue abducted women and children.

Child trafficking victims are often given fake birth certificates by their captors. The meeting emphasized each step in the process of birth certificate fabrication must be investigated, and the facilitators must be punished. Authorities should also form special teams to tackle the problem.

Efforts should be intensified to help return victims to their homes and assist them with their medical and rehabilitative needs, as well as psychological counseling.

In addition, international law enforcement cooperation should be strengthened to combat such crimes, according to the meeting. Authorities are urged to work with their foreign counterparts and exchange information and evidence as they target traffickers.

In April 2021, the State Council issued China's Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (2021-30). The plan aims to set up a long-term mechanism for anti-trafficking work that integrates prevention, crackdown, rescue, resettlement and rehabilitation.

The meeting on Monday urged related departments to collaborate to establish an anti-trafficking work structure that involves input from the public.

The authorities were asked to conduct comprehensive governance and reduce crime at its source. Innovative methods of publicity should also be employed to disseminate anti-abduction and legal knowledge to improve the self-protection capabilities of women and children.

According to the top procuratorate, from January 2021 to December 2022, procuratorial agencies nationwide initiated prosecutions against 3,152 people suspected of trafficking and purchasing trafficked women and children, a 16 percent increase compared to the January 2019 to December 2020 period. Notably, 31 percent of those cases occurred before 2016.