A Cambodian woman trafficked to China as a teenager has been rescued after calling for help on Facebook.
The woman, who is 20 years old according to the Phnom Penh Post, has been found by Chinese authorities and will soon return home from Henan province, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong told DPA on Thursday.
“Now she is at a Chinese police station and when the legal paper is completed, she will be repatriated to Cambodia,’’ Kuong said.
The woman’s more than two-year ordeal gained public attention on Saturday when she was able to access Facebook and post a message.
She said she was promised a good job in China but was instead forced to marry Chinese men, according to local outlet Voice of Democracy.
“They said if I don’t take them as husbands, they would sell me to a brothel,’’ she posted, before calling for Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene.
The woman’s mother told VOD that her daughter was taken to China in 2018 along with five other women aged between 17 and 20 years.
She said she contacted the police in 2019 after learning her daughter had been sexually abused.
Speaking to the outlet, an official from Kratie province, where the family resides, claimed no immediate action was taken because authorities had been unable to locate the woman until her Facebook post.
Cambodia and China have vowed to tackle the trafficking of women to China for marriages.
Activists say the efforts require greater funding.
– DPA/NAN
