YANGON — Nearly 200 people were arrested for human trafficking throughout the country in the seven months to the end of July, the Myanmar Police Force said last week.
None of the arrests for human trafficking took place in Rakhine State, the origin of thousands of the victims of the boat people crisis that occurred earlier this year after a crackdown on human smuggling gangs in Thailand.
The MPF anti-human trafficking task force told Frontier on August 14 that 121 women and 60 men were arrested in connection with 74 human trafficking cases detected during the period.
Shan State accounted for 20 cases, followed by Mandalay Region (14), Kachin State (10) and Yangon Region (9). The other cases were in Ayeyarwady, Bago, Magwe and Sagaing regions and Kayin and Mon states.
Most of the cases, 41, involved forced marriages to Chinese men, a task force spokesperson said. There were 18 cases involving forced labour, 13 involving prostitution and two of selling children.
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