A total of 89 children were rescued when police busted two major human trafficking rings in south China, the Ministry of Public Security said on Wednesday.
Police from 14 provinces and autonomous regions worked together to bust the rings, detaining a total of 369 suspects.
On July 15, police in south China’s Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region broke up a cross-border trafficking gang, saving eight children and detaining 39 suspects.
The gang members were largely Vietnamese, smuggling children from Vietnam into China. However, the channel they used to bring the children into the country has now been closed off, the ministry said.
In another trafficking case, more than 2,600 police officers were dispatched on July 20 from nearly every corner of China to bust a cross-regional trafficking ring that operated in areas ranging from southeast China’s Fujian Province to the northern province of Hebei.
Eighty-one children were rescued and 330 suspects were detained during the bust, the ministry said.
While holding a four-month-old infant in her arms, Yang Lijuan, a policewoman from the city of Handan in Hebei, said “the baby was fed with low-quality milk powder as a result of the buyer’s poor living conditions.” The infant was abducted two months ago.
A number of policewomen were sent to take care of the 13 children rescued in Handan, who were later transferred to social welfare facilities, local police said.
Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-human trafficking office of the Ministry of Public Security, said “all rescued children should be placed under the temporary care of civil affairs departments before their parents can be located and verified through DNA tests.”
Chen added that the children are not allowed to stay with buyers after they have been found by the police in order to discourage the growth of the buyers’ market.
The ministry said further efforts are being made to rescue more abducted children.
Since April 2009, police nationwide have solved more than 39,000 human trafficking cases, busted 4,885 criminal gangs and saved 14,600 children and 24,800 women, according to statistics provided by the ministry.
Xinhua