Chinese police rescue 89 kidnapped infants in July

Kidnapped babies rescued from human traffickers in China. Via Google Images

A crackdown on human trafficking by Chinese police this month has resulted in 369 arrests and 89 kidnapped infants being rescued according to state media.

In a raid in mid-July, police  rescued eight infants (aged 10 days to 7 months) who had been drugged with sleeping pills. They also detained 39 suspects believed to be involved in human trafficking, according to China Daily newspaper.

Another crackdown resulted in 330 arrests of people suspected of involvement in the trafficking of baby girls. 81 Infants (aged 10 days to 4 months) were rescued in this operation.

The traffickers (who were mostly Vietnamese residents)  took children from Vietnam and sold them (mainly in China’s southern regions of Guangdong and Guangxi), according to an unnamed officer from Guangdong’s provincial department of public security.

China has been attempting to contain population growth through a strict “one child” policy. This, coupled with the country’s long tradition of favoring boys, has caused a rise in cases of trafficking in children and women. Traffickers sell women to men in remote areas who are unable to find brides due to the sex imbalance.

Police discovered a child kidnap ring in the Guanxi region in February, prompting them to set up a special task force. Police have uncovered 39,194 cases of human trafficking in China since April 2009 (mostly involving women or children).

Source: msnbc.msn.com