Trafficking charges for wife broker

CAMBODIA:-- An alleged broker accused of selling 10 women from Tbong Khmom province as brides in China was charged by the provincial court yesterday with human trafficking.

Me Seak Lim, 45, was arrested earlier this month based on the complaint of a returned victim, according to Thai Vantha, chief of the provincial Anti-Human Trafficking police.

“We received a complaint from the 31-year-old victim who, in August last year, was tricked into marrying a Chinese man . . . She was abused . . . in China, but she escaped,” he said.

Police allege Lim was part of a larger trafficking ring that lured women from the provinces to Phnom Penh, before flying them to forced marriages in China.

“We are investigating to arrest the mastermind,” Vantha said.

For the first six months this year, rights’ group Adhoc reported it received 26 forced bride complaints and helped 10 victims return to Cambodia.

According to the government, the Cambodian Embassy in China has rescued 18 forced brides so far this year.