{"id":55338,"date":"2023-12-26T20:26:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T20:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawian-brides-sale-to-china-exposed"},"modified":"2023-12-26T20:39:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T20:39:55","slug":"malawian-brides-sale-to-china-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawian-brides-sale-to-china-exposed","title":{"rendered":"Malawian brides sale to China exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>Malawi, one of the world\u2019s poorest and least developed nations, is grappling with dire economic challenges. Meanwhile, China, one of the wealthiest countries, is experiencing surging bride prices, creating a disturbing market for Malawian brides married off to Chinese men.<\/p>\n

Some of the arranged marriages border on human trafficking with brides\u2019 parents, some underaged, coerced by aggressive agents who use threats and bribery to get their way.<\/p>\n

Numerous brides assert that their marriages were forced upon them by manipulative agents who bribed their parents. Shockingly, some brides claim to have been underage when these marriages were arranged, leading to their physical and emotional torment in China.<\/p>\n

Investigation findings by the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) come amidst growing concerns of human trafficking, with Malawian women being trapped in various countries, including Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This crisis unfolds against a backdrop of economic hardship in Malawi, where job opportunities are scarce due to an overreliance on the failing tobacco industry.<\/p>\n

Compounding the issue is the apparent inertia and corruption within law enforcement, rendering them ill-equipped to tackle this problem. Conflicted and sometimes coerced, families are drawn into this disturbing trade, viewing marriage to Chinese men as a way to escape poverty.<\/p>\n

Agents, some of whom maintain close ties with the targeted families, have gained significant influence and power in this trade. When confronted with evidence of their involvement, they resort to threats and intimidation, exemplified by the case of Austin Banda. The Story of Ethel<\/p>\n

In our latest investigation, Ethel Moyo\u2019s tragic story epitomizes the plight of many brides. Despite not being the intended bride, she was coerced into marrying Zhang He, a Chinese artist and watermelon vendor. Ethel\u2019s sister was initially chosen, but she managed to escape, leading to Ethel\u2019s forced inclusion in the arrangement. Her age was falsified to make her eligible for marriage while still underage.<\/p>\n

Over a bad phone connection via WhatsApp, Ethel Moyo, born in 2005 in Lilongwe, narrates how she ended up with her husband, who performs in the streets and sells watermelons in Yan\u2019an City, Shaanxi province, China. The Escaping Sister and Frightened Mother<\/p>\n

The agents for the marriage allegedly paid considerable sums to her mother to get her elder sister, who bolted from the pre-departure camp in Lilongwe\u2019s Chinsapo Township. When the agents turned the screws on her poor desperate mother of three, who earns a living by operating a low-end restaurant in Mtsiriza township in Lilongwe, Ethel was begged by her mother and forced by the agents as a replacement, hence falsifying her age to make her eligible for marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister was chatting with one of my mother\u2019s friends,\u201d recalls Ethel, a primary school dropout, the genesis of what she now calls a nightmare. \u201cShe asked my sister if she could go to China to get married. She was promised a rich husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sister in question had just married in Malawi the previous October to her Malawian lovebird, a man called Ignacio Luis. But the family friend\u2013 a businesswoman only identified as Eliza who also lives in Mtsiriza and is accused of being behind most of the arranged marriages \u2013 was proposing for her to elope with another man. This Chinese national was in the country to find a bride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chinese guy came to Malawi and was sleeping at a lodge,\u201d recalls Ethel, \u201cThe people were working behind the scenes arranging the marriage with the Chinese guy. I just heard one day my mother telling me that they were going to drop her off to a Chinese person. After a few days, my sister, while staying with the Chinese person in Chinsapo, started saying she was having a bad feeling about the arrangement and even had nightmares about it. So she escaped from the marriage in Chinsapo … around March.\u201d<\/p>\n

Married Life in China<\/b><\/p>\n

Ethel went to China around April. She was not specific about the dates. But she says it was only because pressure was fierce on her Mum, locally known around Mtsiriza for her nickname Bokho (hypo in English), who was in tears as she begged her to replace her sister Beatrice after Banda, the agent who works with Eliza, threatened the mother over the payments the family had received from the agents.<\/p>\n

After her sister, Beatrice, escaped, the agents reportedly threatened her mother with Police arrest. The facilitators, a driver and Eliza, whom Ethel calls \u2018Auntie Eliza\u2019 but is allegedly related to Austin, took Ethel to Manolo Lodge in Chinsapo. There, they kept her for a month before flying her to China.<\/p>\n

Her mother had purportedly used the money from the agents to buy things such as food, cooking oil, a bag of maize flour, soap, surf, a few biscuits, and margarine. They also gave her some money. \u201cThe Chinese reportedly gave the facilitator K500,000, but she gave my mum K400,000,\u201d said Ethel. \u201cMy sister was not given any money. She was given a phone, but it was taken away from her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told to be telling people I am going to China for school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin, the agent who took her to the Immigration department to apply for a passport, allegedly told her to say she was aged 25 when she was, in fact, 17. He reportedly threatened to beat her up if she told the Immigration office her actual date of birth, which the agents changed to 2000.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin and his brother are in this business. They both facilitate the trade,\u201d claimed Ethel, specifically accusing Austin of threatening her to obey the orders, including, in some circumstances, ordering her to hug the husband to show public affection.<\/p>\n

Ethel\u2019s Husband, Zhang He Ethel and her husband, Zhang He, officially married in China through the state certification, but she says her life has since become a nightmare.<\/p>\n

Loveless Marriage And Abuse<\/b><\/p>\n

She describes her marriage to Zhang He, 33, as loveless and says she struggles to make love to her husband, whom she detested from the word go. The husband\u2019s response has been anger, often manifesting in violent and verbal attacks. It is a marriage born with a significant handicap: a language barrier. The husband does not speak Ethel\u2019s native Chichewa or second language, English, and Ethel does not speak Chinese. They use their phones as a translator.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe beats me up with a belt when I refuse sex,\u201d says Ethel, adding she has not told her mother about the abuse.<\/p>\n

And Austin, the agent, still plays a role. Reminding her to continue bearing the suffering for the sake of the arrangement and continually warning her that no transport fare money for her rescue is forthcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin even calls me while here in China to threaten me,\u201d she said, \u201che says he can\u2019t give me transport to get home. He calls to check if I am having sex with the husband. He even questions why I am not getting pregnant. He asks me, \u2018Are you taking anti-pregnancy pills or aborting?\u2019 He says he hears I am not having sex with the man. I have been complaining that my husband beats me, but Austin says banja ndi kupilira, you need to persevere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethel, desperate to escape China and her unhappy marriage, contacted a Lilongwe-based lawyer, Stanley Chirwa, who has been working with authorities, including the Chinese Embassy. The embassy brought Interpol into the loop and wants to burst the syndicate trading Malawian girls in China.<\/p>\n

Souring Bride Prices in China<\/b><\/p>\n

The income of Ethel\u2019s husband, Zhang He, from playing as an artist in the streets of the Ansai District Shaanxi province, China, and selling watermelons is enough to buy off a bride in Malawi but hardly sufficient to pay the bridal price in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, women are so expensive,\u201d says Ethel, who lives with her husband alongside Zhang He\u2019s father and mother in a compound she describes as big.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times, bride prices are skyrocketing across China, \u201caveraging $20,000 in some provinces \u2014 making marriage increasingly unaffordable.\u201d The payments, the newspaper said in a recent report, are typically paid by the groom\u2019s parents, and poorer men in rural areas must pay more to marry because the women\u2019s families want a stronger guarantee that they can provide for their daughters, a move that instead could plunge them deeper into poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has broken many families,\u201d Yuying Tong, a sociology professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told NYT. \u201cThe parents spend all their money and go bankrupt to find a wife for their son.\u201d Cue a cheaper option, Malawi. A country where the majority live on less than a dollar a day, where extreme poverty is a lived experience of millions.<\/p>\n

Life of The Other Married Brides in China<\/b><\/p>\n

According to Ethel, Zhang got the idea of a Malawian bride from a friend who married a Malawian lady called Spiwe. According to Ethel, Spiwe was 20 when she married the Chinese guy. Apart from Spiwe, she also knows another girl called Joyce from Malawi\u2019s second city, Blantyre, who is also married to a Chinese man.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the women married off here, I am the youngest and being abused,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The women, on the other hand, are being pushed out of Malawi due to economic challenges, including growing inequality and lack of jobs, Betcheni Tcheleni, a Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences economist, told PIJ: \u201cPeople think if they go out of the country things will be better, maybe they will find a job, maybe start a business. People try to go to unimaginable places to ensure they can fend for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The economist said human trafficking and economic migration are likely to continue until the country addresses the fundamental economic challenges that will ensure job creation.<\/p>\n

In May this year, Police at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe arrested three Chinese nationals, two men and a woman, over attempted human trafficking. The Chinese men, Zyang Yan Qing and Zhon Yanhu, and a woman only identified as Miss Chen, were about to fly out of the country with two Malawian women.<\/p>\n

UN Aware<\/b><\/p>\n

They all had been married Chinese partners, the UN agency fighting drugs and crimes, UNODC confirmed to PIJ. \u201cThe case includes obtaining a marriage certificate through fraudulent activity,\u201d UNODC National Director of UNODC Maxwell Matewere said in an interview.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson at National Police Headquarters in Lilongwe could neither provide an update on the KIA incident nor respond to the findings of the PIJ investigations. The UN office has also registered other cases involving a man trying to forge marriage certificates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also aware of some gentleman who contacted a certain lawyer in Lilongwe looking for the possibility of legal support to register an organization in Malawi whose agenda was going to be recruitment and arrange a marriage for women in Malawi,\u201d Matewere, the UNODC Malawi director, added.<\/p>\n

PIJ Search on Social Media Spaces<\/b><\/p>\n

PIJ found more women married to Chinese men in the course of the presentation. And nine social media accounts of women bearing the names of women we believe are involved in the Chinese-Malawi arranged marriages had one familiar mutual friend, Austin.<\/p>\n

The Two Agents Eliza and Austin Marked with the Green Markers Pictures obtained by PIJ show a man identified as Austin by some sources with Ethel\u2019s family members and also with a man identified as Ethel\u2019s husband, purportedly in Mtsiriza township when they met her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not involved,\u201d he says, however, that her relative, Philipina, has been in China since 2019. \u201cShe is married there with two children. I am even travelling there in China. I was involved in my sister\u2019s case. I went to the Police and Immigration and helped with documents. The person who sent you will get you injured. Do you investigate anyone who goes out of the country? Do you investigate anyone who is going to Oman, Kuwaiti?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Agent Threatens PIJ<\/b><\/p>\n

Austin threatened a PIJ journalist when approached for comment. He vehemently denied being an agent or knowing Ethel. He claimed he was not involved in the marriage of Ethel, whom she says she doesn\u2019t know but was involved in the marriage of her niece, Philipina. \u201cI am the one who consented to the marriage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the UN agency seems aware of the matter, the Malawi government is oblivious. The Ministry of Gender, through a spokesperson, told PIJ it was unaware of the trends. The ministry, though, turned defensive over reports that minors are among those involved in the industry, casting doubt that its officers involved in the certification of marriages could be involved in anything ulterior.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Ministry, we are not aware,\u201d spokesperson Pauline Kaude said in a written response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has a Trafficking in Persons Act in place, and the policyholder is the Ministry of Homeland Security. It has trained protection officers, MRA officers, and Police Officers. It has also done sensitization of the chiefs and community members at large in all districts and villages around the border posts to check children that are going out and coming into the country to see if an older person accompanies them and has valid travel documents, which are subject to verification,\u201d Kaude added.<\/p>\n

Ethel\u2019s Mum Speaks<\/b><\/p>\n

In an interview, Ethel\u2019s mum rejected her daughter\u2019s assertions that she was in forced marriage. She also denied ever being paid to give her hand in marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter went to China for reasons. Her cousin is in China and invited Ethel to work for her either in a shop or to take care of her children. I heard agents are looking for women to marry, but I couldn\u2019t allow her to go if she was going there for marriage. Her cousin is married there, and the husband has shops.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as she knows, her daughter is happy in China. She says the cousin is married to a Chinese man but insists she was unaware if Ethel is married. She also denied knowing about Auntie Eliza, whom Ethel says is a friend.<\/p>\n

Indeed, other brides we found married off in China appear happy or comfortable with their arrangement, at least based on their social media postings. Some post pictures of their wedding days on social media, clad in white wedding dresses, some in Valentine\u2019s Day attire, looking exotic and smiling. One bride has a picture of herself and her husband as a Facebook profile picture, the couple looking relaxed and smiling. The majority were unwilling to be interviewed for this investigation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s perhaps the image Ethel\u2019s mum has of her daughter. Her reality couldn\u2019t be more different. \u201cI need help,\u201d Ethel told PIJ in our last interview, \u201cIf I stay, I will die of depression.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Malawi<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. Malawi, one of the world\u2019s poorest and least developed nations, is grappling with dire economic challenges. Meanwhile, China, one of the wealthiest countries, is experiencing surging bride prices, creating a disturbing market for Malawian brides married off to Chinese men. Some of the arranged marriages border on human trafficking with brides\u2019 parents, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,371,234],"class_list":["post-55338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"\nMalawian brides sale to China exposed - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Malawi, one of the world\u2019s poorest and least developed nations, is grappling with dire economic challenges. 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