Summary
13 March 2012
Chinese police have rescued more than twenty-four thousand women and children who had been taken from their homes last year, according to the authorities. Some of those captured had been sold to other families or forced into prostitution.
Reporter
Martin Patience
Child-trafficking has become a serious problem in China.
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Report
Among those rescued by the police were more than eight thousand children kidnapped from their homes. Critics blame the country's one child policy for creating a thriving black market, where babies are abducted and then sold on for adoption.
More than fifteen thousand women were also kidnapped. Some were used as workers, others forced into marriage or prostitution.
According to officials more than three thousand human trafficking gangs were broken up, but the authorities did not say how many people in total were abducted last year.
They vowed to step up their campaign against human trafficking. As these figures show, the abduction of women and children remains a serious problem in China.
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Vocabulary
- kidnapped
taken illegally (used for people)
- black market
illegal trade (of goods or products)
- abducted
taken away by force
- sold on
exchanged for money
- adoption
take on someone else's child as your own
- forced into
made to do something (with threat of violence)
- according to
agreeing with
- broken up
smashed
- to step up
to intensify
- human trafficking
illegal trade of men, women and children
