ARE CHILDREN WORTH THIS LITTLE........

Chinese police smash child trafficking ring and free 180 desperate  children

• Nationwide operations saw over 800 arrests  and 181 children freed in 15 Chinese provinces
• Child trafficking has become a major problem  in China with recent freedom of movements helping illegal trade in  children
• ECPAT UK director say the organisation have  noticed an increase in children being trafficked into the UK from China in the  past decade

The black market for child trade in China have been  helped by economic reforms easing cross-province transport (stock  image)

Chinese police freed over 180 children when  busting two major child trafficking gangs, officials report.
Police arrested 802 suspects in a nationwide  move against child-trafficking which involved over 10,000 officers.
Critics blame lax adoption laws and the  one-child policy saying it has led to an expanding black market of  child-trafficking.
Human trade involving children has become a  big problem in China where  they are often sold for adoption or as cheap labour  and household  servants.
In the latest operation, 181 children were  rescued from traffickers in 15 provincial regions including Hebei, Shandong,  Henan, Sichuan, Yunnan.
Investigations that led to the current round  of arrests began in December 2011 when four suspects were caught in Henan  province while attempting to sell four babies, the  BBC reports.
A ‘Level A’ suspect, Shao Zhongyuan, was  caught in Pingyi county, Shandong province, the Ministry of Public Security said  yesterday.
According to the ministry he was part of a  gang which trafficked more than 100 children.

The recent economic reforms resulting in  greater freedom of movement is  believed to have made in easier for trafficking  gangs to operate in the  country.

Christine  Beddoe, director of ECPAT UK, the  UK’s leading organisation working  against the exploitation of children for  pornography, prostitution and  trafficking, said that numbers are elusive as  they are not formally  collected, but that they have noticed a change over the  past decade.

A mother and her child are pictured standing on a street  corner next to a sign that lists the ‘One child per family’ rules from Chinese  authorities

‘In our experience the number of children  being trafficked in to the UK from China has increased over the past ten  years.
‘Due to the nature of trafficking the numbers  that we do see are only the tip of the iceberg.’
The US Department of State’s 2012 Trafficking  In Persons report also blamed the one-child policy in China: ‘Well-organized  international criminal syndicates and local gangs play key roles in both  internal and cross-border trafficking.
‘China’s birth limitation policy, coupled  with a cultural preference for sons, creates a skewed sex ratio in China, which  served as a key cause of trafficking of foreign women as brides for Chinese men  and for forced prostitution.’
An officer from the MPS speaking to  China  Daily said that police have stopped child trafficking from  increasing, but the  illegal practice was still prominent in some areas.
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