Are Tibetan Women Being Subjected to Bride Trafficking?

By Sam Lynch / December 11, 2019;

A new report from the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has revealed human rights violations “pertaining to land, livelihood and women’s rights” in Nyalam county, on Tibet’s border with Nepal. The TCHRD is a registered non-government human rights organisation based in Dharamshala that aims to protect the human rights of people in Tibet.

The 2015 Nepal earthquake has led to the relocation of Tibetans from their land and livelihoods due to local government claims “that the old houses had become unstable”. An anonymous source from within the county has told the TCHRD that, “If they move into the new houses that are built cheek by jowl, they will lose their land and livelihood sources without adequate compensation”, adding, “The old houses had sustained minor cracks but this is used as an excuse to displace and dispossess the whole community.” TCHRD says that the earthquake is used as an excuse to separate Tibetans from their traditional ways of living. Many local residents have attempted to resist relocation and prominent voices of dissent have found themselves in police custody, including a Mr Wanghcuk, noted by the TCHRD in their report as “one of the strongest voices against the relocation project”, who has been detained since March.

Another cause for concern in the region is the fate of Tibetan women who marry Chinese migrant workers. The report notes that whilst many of these marriages have proved legitimate there are an increasing number of cases where, after the bride leaves home, all communication with parents and relatives ceases completely.

TCHRD says that, given reports in the media of bride trafficking from countries in Southeast Asia, the Tibetan families are concerned their daughters are suffering a similar fate. According to a Human Rights Watch report, the gender imbalance in China has led to women being smuggled from rural communities in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Pakistan and sold to Chinese families where they are “held prisoner and pressured to produce babies as quickly as possible”. China is known to give incentives for inter-ethnic marriages and TCHRD’s report notes that many analysts view this as another attempt by the Chinese government to “dilute Tibetan identity and stamp out political resistance against Chinese rule”.