The Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday that more than 100 Cambodian women had returned from China last year, after being trafficked to be sold as brides, revealing the continuing trend of Cambodian women being tricked into marrying foreign nationals.
Chou Bun Eng, secretary of state at the Interior Ministry, said there were 112 cases of trafficked brides returning to Cambodia in 2019, of which 111 women had returned from China. The Interior Ministry official was speaking at an annual anti-trafficking meeting, which had been postponed on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Chou Bun Eng said officials were not fully convinced of the reasons for the women’s reasons for returning, but acknowledged that they had been taken overseas under false pretenses by brokers.