Through its recovery from genocide, political tension, and colonialism, Cambodia has been able to grow its economy and prosper given the circumstances, however, the country also has its set of problems. In recent years, human trafficking, specifically the trafficking of women and migrants for sexual exploitation, has been climbing steadily in the country. With the Coronavirus pandemic, experts are noting an even steeper increase in what is known as “bride trafficking”, the trafficking of Cambodian brides into China.

In the past ten years, thousands upon thousands of women originating from Southeast Asia have been unwillingly shipped to China through criminal networks, the majority of them promising high-paying jobs and luxury when in reality, the women are sold off as brides. The men these women end up with tend to be abusive and sexually exploitative. Trafficking seems to be caused by China’s growing gender imbalance.

According to organizations working towards the elimination of trafficking, Coronavirus has greatly affected crucial sectors of Cambodia’s economy, including garment, hospitality, and tourism. With blows to the economy, there have been mass job losses, all of which only fuel the recent spike in bride trafficking as young women and girls are being driven abroad in order to support their families. With no options for work, it is much easier for perpetrators to convince women.

On average, charities have received reports of a new case every three days in 2020, double the amount of previous years. The victims tend to be in their twenties, however there have been cases of girls as young as 14. Chan Saron, program manager at Chab Dai, has said that she believes thousands of cases are likely going unreported. Women who are able to return from China usually describe experiences of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, confinement, forced work, and torture.

Police in Cambodia have said that the problem is not an easy one to take on seeing as most cases have shown that victims’ family members are often complicit in the act. Poor, rural families are generally persuaded by criminals’ promises of cash of up to thousands of dollars. Sadly, most of the women know the risks the offer entails, but they still go for the money, according to Chou Bun Eng, deputy head of the Cambodian government’s counter-trafficking committee.

Authorities have also noticed a high influx into Vietnam, which is slowly becoming a transit country for women on their way to China. Bun Eng has said that officials in Vietnam are becoming somewhat better at spotting potential victims from Cambodia and stopping them from reaching China.

Cambodia is a leading country in human trafficking in Asia. At a glance, 38% of women and girls who are currently employed in sex work were brought into the industry after their virginity had been purchased. Moreover, in a survey of Cambodian sex trafficking victims in Thailand, 25% were trafficked by a stranger, while two-thirds of the victims were trafficked by someone they already knew, sometimes family members.

Aside from Cambodian women being trafficked as brides to China, men and children are also extremely vulnerable to different types of trafficking. Women are commonly shipped to Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, and Taiwan either for forced labor or sexual exploitation. Men are mainly trafficked to Thailand for forced labor in agriculture, fishing, or construction. Children are primarily sent to Thailand and Vietnam for forced begging.

Nary, a young girl whose name has been changed, was raped by five armed men at 13 years old, an event that distanced her from her family and had her moving from home to home until one family sold her to a brothel in Phnom Penh. She was trapped for over two years as a sex worker, trying to escape but being caught, beaten, and forced back into work. After a police raid into the brothel, Nary was placed at World Vision’s Trauma Recovery Center, where she is receiving trauma counseling and has tested positive for HIV.

Srey, another young girl whose name has been changed, was loaned money from a broker to go to Phnom Penh where she would work as a domestic servant. After coming home a bit later than she should, she was thrown out by the family she worked for, however, since she was too afraid to tell her mother that she had become unemployed, Srey was placed into a brothel by the broker in order to pay off her debt. She was never able to pay off the debt and contracted HIV/AIDS while working at the brothel.

“In our interviews with some of the victims, they were treated like slaves where they worked, forced to have sex, deliver babies and there were instances where they were not even allowed to touch their own children.

Moeun Tola, executive director of the Center for Labor Alliance and Human Rights

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