China withhold visas to 90 Pakistani brides after human trafficking complaints

ISLAMABAD: Chinese Embassy in Islamabad withheld visas to 90 Pakistani brides after complaints of human trafficking and organ trade surfaced.

The embassy received 140 applications from Chinese nationals in 2019 seeking visas for their brides after a record rise in number of transnational marriages this year.

This sudden spike alerted the officials and we approached our Pakistani counterparts in this regard, Deputy Chief of Mission Chinese Embassy, Lijian Zhao told Urdu News.

We issued only 50 visas and withheld all the remaining requests, he said.

The DCM strongly refutes reports of Pakistani women being forced into prostitution and organ removal. The media reports have fabricated facts and spread rumors and there are no evidences to corroborate the claim, Zhao added.

The embassy also issued a statement after Pakistan launched a crackdown and arrested several Chinese nationals involved in fake marriages.

The Ministry of Public Security of China sent a task force to Pakistan to carry out law enforcement cooperation with the Pakistani side, it said.

According to the investigations conducted by the task force, there is no forced prostitution or sale of human organs for those Pakistani women who stay in China after marriage with Chinese.

He also denied the perception being established that all the marriages were fake and added that the Chinese nationals, who applied for visas of their Pakistani brides last year, have completed all the legal formalities before requesting.

However, he said, there were a few complaints of Pakistani women being tortured by their husbands, which we addressed.

Zhao asked Pakistani government to review its visa on arrival policy for Chinese businessmen as some marriage bureaus in Pakistan are misusing it.

He said the Pakistani authorities should probe into institutions and chambers of commerce and industry which are inviting those fake businessmen which are actually coming to Pakistan in search of wives.