China Seeks To Use DNA to Curb Child Begging and Trafficking UPDATED

“In order to combat child trafficking in Beijing, Chinese authorities are seeking to use DNA samples from child beggars to determine if they match any children who have been reported missing.

A child’s DNA information will then be put into a “DNA information bank” dedicated to matching the DNA of trafficked children with that of their parents. Matches will only be possible in the event that parents of missing children had previously registered a DNA sample with their local public security department.

If there are any matches, the children will be hopefully be reunited with their families.

By September 2011, around 1,400 missing children had been reunited with their parents through the bank.

According to humantrafficking.org, China is a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking; the majority of which is internal trafficking.

Most of the internal trafficking of children tends to be for sexual and labor exploitation. There are estimates on the number of victims range from 10,000 to 20,000 each year. International organizations report that 90 percent of internal trafficking victims are women and children, trafficked primarily from Anhui, Henan, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou Provinces to prosperous provinces along the east coast.

It was reportedly widely in December 2011, that Chinese police busted two child-trafficking rings after a six-month nationwide investigation, rescuing 178 children and arresting 608 suspects involved.

Officials placed rescued children in local orphanages while they tried to reunite them with their families.

Regarding the arrests, Chinese authorities stated that they “will strictly adhere to our policy of ‘zero tolerance’ on child-trafficking.”

“This policy is aimed at cracking down on the buyers’ market,” said Chen Shiqu, Director of the anti-human trafficking department at the Ministry of Public Security.

“We will ensure the buyers lose both their money and the purchased children, so that we can address the problem from the source by reducing the demand for kidnapped and trafficked children.”

China Seeks To Use DNA to Curb Child Begging and Trafficking
[SOS Children’s Villages Canada 2/13/12]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “The DNA database for missing children set up by the Ministry of Public Security has helped over 2,000 abducted kids return home, a Chinese official said Wednesday.

The ministry has created a DNA database of more than 20,000 blood samples from parents who have lost their children in an effort to help identify abducted children and fight against the crime, according to Chen Shiqu, head of the ministry’s office for the crackdown on child abductions.

Since 2009, police have uncovered nearly 16,000 cases of women trafficking and 12,000 child abduction cases. Authorities rescued more than 19,000 abducted children and 35,000 women, Chen said.

The police will keep on implementing the “zero tolerance” policy to the crime, and beef up efforts to crack down on child trafficking, he said.

Human trafficking is difficult to root out in China, partly as the conventions of “boys carrying on the family line” and “sons guaranteeing one’s old age” remain deeply rooted in the countryside. In many rural areas, couples with no offspring still tend to “buy” and adopt abducted children.”

2,000 abducted children identified via DNA bank
[China Daily 3/1/12]

Update 2: The new number of reunions stands at 2,348 according to a new article.

“More than 2,300 youngsters, who were abducted, sold or reported missing, have been able to track their blood relatives, Chen Shiqu, director of the Ministry of Public Security’s human trafficking task force, said in an interview.

When police rescue abducted children or find vagrant youths, they immediately take blood samples for DNA sampling, he said.

The exact number of entries in the database is unknown, but since its launch in April 2009 it has matched 2,348 children with their biological parents. Last year, it helped reunite 521 families.

“It is especially efficient in helping parents and children who have been separated for years to find each other,” he said.

The system quickly compares DNA samples from both parents and children and can be accessed by police nationally.

“Years of separation can change many things, especially a child’s physical appearance,” he said.

The DNA database allows for an almost immediate identification.

In November 2011, Gan Liang, who was abducted when he was 3 from Guizhou province in 1988, was reunited with his mother after 25 years, Guizhou Metropolitan Daily reported.

The mother submitted a blood sample in 2010 through Baby Back Home, an NGO devoted to helping parents find lost children. Her son did the same in September 2011 at a police station in Shandong province.

Zhang Baoyan, founder of Baby Back Home, said the database is “the most effective way” to reunite families.

The website receives an average of 50 inquiries daily from both parents and people who think they may have been abducted.

The NGO takes the blood samples and hands them to the ministry for DNA testing.

“But there are still some parents of missing children who have no idea about the DNA database,” she said.

Chen said his department is drafting an action plan on human trafficking that will be issued this month.

Police will target villages in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and take DNA samples from vagrant children and children they suspect may have been abducted.

No matter what advanced technology police use, the key lies in tackling child abduction, Chen said. Those found guilty of the heinous crime should face more severe punishment, he said.

In impoverished areas, such as Yunnan and Sichuan, villagers have sold their children and in relatively well-off provinces, such as Fujian, Guangdong and Shandong, childless couples have bought abducted children.

These couples strongly believe in the importance of “carrying on the family line”, and that it is important to have sons to support them in old age.

Under the Criminal Procedure Law, buyers of trafficked children will only be held criminally responsible if they defied rescue efforts or physically abused the children.

Chen said lawmakers are mulling revising the law.

“Efforts should also be made to send signals to buyers that, no matter how many years they have kept the child, they are not the parents and will face severe punishment,” he said.

From January to October 2012, police handled 1,868 cases of child trafficking and 4,760 cases of human trafficking, according to the ministry.

About 1,240 trafficking gangs were smashed and 17,871 suspects detained, while police rescued 14,971 trafficked children and 9,156 abducted women.”

Database gives hope to abducted children

[China Daily 1/22/13]