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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
Three traffickers - referred to in China as "snakeheads" - tried to sneak 124 people out of China in early December 2008. The "snakeheads" had overseas backing according to the Chinese police (as reported by the Xinhua News Agency). They brought their victims to Yunnan with promises of jobs. In reality, they planned to traffick them into Myanmar with the collaboration of Burmese casino operators where they would be forced to construct roads. Numerous casinos run by drug lords and ethnic rebels operate on the Myanmar side of the long border with China. The victims were from poor families from villages near Chaoyang and Dandong in the Liaoning province - close to the main border between China and Korea.
Response and intervention
Yes, see above. The China Daily newspaper reports on December 12, 2008, that the police "have also come across several cases of poverty-stricken people being smuggled into China from Myanmar." The Chinese police arrested two of the traffickers and rescued 124 individuals before they crossed the border. A third trafficker was still at large at the time of this report. All of the survivors returned to their home villages. Unknown. I learned about the incident from a China Daily newspaper report whilst I was in Beijing in December 2008.