A new report by Kachin women exposes how the Burmese government’s war against the Kachin has greatly increased the risk of human trafficking along the China-Burma border.

“Pushed to the Brink,” launched today by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), shows how the displacement of over 100,000 people over the past two years, lack of refugee protection and shortages of humanitarian aid have become significant new push factors fuelling the trafficking of Kachin women to China, already a long-standing problem.

KWAT’s report includes 24 cases of actual or suspected trafficking from Kachin border areas since the resumption of fighting in June 2011, mostly involving young women and girls displaced by the war, who have been tricked, drugged, raped, and sold to Chinese men or families as brides or bonded laborers for as much as 40,000 Yuan (about $6,500 USD) per person. Some ended up as far east as Shandong and Fujian provinces.  

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) will launch a new report Pushed to the Brink, about how conflict and displacement is fuelling human trafficking in northern Burma at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand (FCCT) in Bangkok, Thailand.

Geneva, Switzerland

A panel discussion held on the sidelines of the 22nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday looked at the recommendations made by Tomás Ojea Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma/Myanmar, in his report to the Council and supported the need for further reforms in the country.

This is a testimony by Ah Noh of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand to the US Congress on 28 Feb, 2013.

Firstly I would like to say thank you to Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for inviting me to testify today.

I am from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, home of the Kachin people and most of the Christian minority of Burma. In June 2011, the Burmese Army broke a 17-year long ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army (also called KIA). Since then, troops from over 140 Burmese battalions have launched a violent operation in Kachin state and Northern Shan state, using heavy artillery and aircraft.  Over 100,000 people have been displaced, including my 78-year-old grandmother, who spent her earlier life fleeing the civil war, and is once again homeless.