Railway police in Shanghai say they have detained 47 suspects and rescued 21 babies in a month-long crackdown on child trafficking.
The sting operations since last spring, involving police in five provinces, cracked a major baby trafficking ring, with the most recent raid netting 18 suspected child traffickers and 12 babies, according to a police statement on the local government website, reported on Tuesday in local newspapers.
The mainland has a thriving black market in babies who are abducted or bought from poor families and sold to couples who are childless or want more children, as well as girls and women who are sold as brides.
Many of the children were kidnapped from southwest China’s Yunnan province and taken by train to eastern China’s Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. It was unclear if any of the babies were meant to be passed on to families in Shanghai.
Nationwide, police have rescued 2,008 kidnapped children and solved 1,717 cases since the crackdown was launched on April 9, according to a report in the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
Chinese have a traditional preference for male heirs that is particularly strong in rural areas, resulting in trafficking of boys. Some families also sell their girl babies in order to try for a boy, since the country’s one-child policy limits most families to having one child.
China’s Ministry of Public Security has said it is setting up a DNA database to combat child trafficking. The database will include DNA from the parents of abducted children and samples from children who are suspected of having been abducted or vagrant children with an unclear history.
The police also maintain an online registry of rescued abducted children, including infants and older children. So far, of the 60 children listed only four are recorded as having been reunited with their families.
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Shanghai police arrest 47 child trafficking suspects
Associated Press in Beijing
12 March 2010
Railway police in Shanghai say they have detained 47 suspects and rescued 21 babies in a month-long crackdown on child trafficking.
The sting operations since last spring, involving police in five provinces, cracked a major baby trafficking ring, with the most recent raid netting 18 suspected child traffickers and 12 babies, according to a police statement on the local government website, reported on Tuesday in local newspapers.
The mainland has a thriving black market in babies who are abducted or bought from poor families and sold to couples who are childless or want more children, as well as girls and women who are sold as brides.
Many of the children were kidnapped from southwest China’s Yunnan province and taken by train to eastern China’s Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. It was unclear if any of the babies were meant to be passed on to families in Shanghai.
Nationwide, police have rescued 2,008 kidnapped children and solved 1,717 cases since the crackdown was launched on April 9, according to a report in the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
Chinese have a traditional preference for male heirs that is particularly strong in rural areas, resulting in trafficking of boys. Some families also sell their girl babies in order to try for a boy, since the country’s one-child policy limits most families to having one child.
China’s Ministry of Public Security has said it is setting up a DNA database to combat child trafficking. The database will include DNA from the parents of abducted children and samples from children who are suspected of having been abducted or vagrant children with an unclear history.
The police also maintain an online registry of rescued abducted children, including infants and older children. So far, of the 60 children listed only four are recorded as having been reunited with their families.
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