Six months ago, 19‑year‑old Rima (a fictitious name) left her hometown of Bagerhat for Dhaka, intending to work as a domestic helper to financially support her three‑year‑old son. However, what began as a quest to secure her child’s future turned into a horrific ordeal: she was drugged, blackmailed with explicit footage, coerced into marrying a Chinese national, and ultimately trafficked to China.
Having only completed sixth‑grade education and previously employed at a local jute factory, Rima was lured to Dhaka by a distant female relative. The relative promised her a domestic service job in the upscale Baridhara area of the capital, yet instead of arranging the promised work, she confined Rima to an apartment in Uttar Badda, where she lived with her own family.
Within days, Rima alleges the woman forced her to consume yaba, an illegal psychoactive drug. Once Rima developed a physical and psychological dependence on the substance, the relative tightly controlled her drug dosage and supply. “They said taking the drugs would make me stop missing my son and stop crying constantly,” Rima recounted. She revealed that the traffickers filmed her while under the influence of drugs and later used these recordings to coerce her into agreeing to marry a Chinese man.
A Bangladeshi middleman named Ador, identified by Rima as a key accomplice, took her to Jamuna Future Park shopping complex to meet her supposed husband, Wang Zhen Zhen. The traffickers arranged all her travel documentation, escorted her to the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, and compelled her to sign official paperwork at a city coffee shop.
Approximately one month after these arrangements, Rima was brought to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. She states that an unidentified uniformed staff member in blue escorted her and another Bangladeshi woman onto a shuttle bus leading to their outbound aircraft. She was unable to recognize the individual or confirm which organization he worked for.
Upon arriving in China, Wang first kept Rima in a hotel for three days before moving her into his family’s private residence. Initially, she was treated decently by the household, and this continued until her six‑month visa extension was approved.
Her peaceful treatment abruptly ended after the visa renewal. “One night, they bound my hands and feet and dragged me away in the darkness, just like livestock,” Rima testified. She was detained in a separate residential property for roughly 20 days, during which she endured physical beatings and sexual assault. After spending a week back at her husband’s family home, she was once again locked in the same secondary location for another 10 to 12 days of abuse.
Her mobile phone was seized every time she attempted to contact her family and acquaintances back in Bangladesh. To regain her freedom and communication access, Rima feigned acceptance of her trapped circumstances, which eventually allowed her to retrieve a mobile device.
Upon checking messages on her husband’s phone, Rima discovered that Ador had received 250,000 Bangladeshi taka for orchestrating the forced marriage. Meanwhile, the trafficking ring demanded 350,000 taka from Rima’s family in exchange for permitting her to return to Bangladesh.
Rima finally seized her chance to escape during a medical appointment. While the Chinese man accompanying her was busy at the hospital’s reception desk, she slipped away and fled to a nearby restaurant. There, she showed the restaurant staff screenshot records of threatening messages (with Chinese translations) and photos documenting her physical injuries. The staff immediately alerted local emergency responders.
Chinese police recovered Rima’s passport and assisted her in purchasing a flight ticket to Beijing. Though she managed to obtain a local mobile phone after reaching Beijing, the language barrier left her completely isolated, as she could not speak or understand Mandarin. She subsequently got in touch with the international anti‑trafficking organization Justice and Care, whose team facilitated her safe repatriation to Bangladesh.
Rima’s harrowing story emerges amid mounting public and official concerns over a rising trend: Bangladeshi women being trafficked to China through fraudulent and coerced marriage arrangements.
Mostafizur Rahman, Additional Superintendent of the Trafficking in Persons Unit under Bangladesh’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), confirmed that he is currently investigating four separate trafficking cases linked to China. Numerous additional related cases have been registered with multiple local police stations, including those at the airport, Gabtoli, Uttara, Dakshinkhan and Uttarkhan.
“The Chinese Embassy has informed us that over 1,100 family visas were issued for travel to China in 2025, and we estimate at least 600 of these visa holders have already traveled to the country,” Rahman stated. He further explained that valid‑looking marriage certificates and official visa documents create major obstacles for law enforcement, making it extremely difficult to block such trafficking‑related travel. Most victims also fail to recognize the severe risks involved before leaving Bangladesh.
Shariful Hasan, Associate Director of the Migration and Youth Platform at BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), noted that no official statistical data quantifies the full scale of the crisis. Even so, reports of such cross‑border trafficking cases have surged consistently over the past 18 months.
Hasan has urged authorities to conduct thorough background checks on all Chinese nationals seeking marriage with Bangladeshi women, including verifying their true identities and marital status. He also called on immigration officials and police to compile comprehensive data on affected women — tracking how many have traveled to China, how many have returned safely, and how many remain stranded overseas — and to initiate contact with the families of missing victims.
In an official notice issued on July 14, the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka issued a warning to its citizens against partnering with illegal marriage brokers operating in Bangladesh. The notice emphasized that so‑called “bride‑buying” marriage schemes carry severe risks, including human trafficking, extortion, intimidation, physical violence and financial loss.
Mohammed Tariqul Islam, Country Director of Justice and Care, commented that Rima’s successful rescue and return home highlights the urgent need for enhanced cross‑border collaboration, more rigorous law enforcement investigations, and improved risk awareness among vulnerable Bangladeshi communities.
Chu Guang, a counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh, responded to the case when contacted recently. He explained that all family visa applicants undergo a rigorous multi‑stage verification process, which includes authenticating marriage certificates, mandatory one‑on‑one embassy interviews, and signed voluntary commitment letters. These measures are designed to confirm the authenticity of each marriage and ensure all applicants travel of their own free will.
“We encourage Bangladeshi police to crack down fiercely on local intermediaries, as these criminal groups are the masterminds behind these trafficking incidents,” Chu stated. He clarified that the Chinese Embassy holds no law‑enforcement authority within Bangladesh and relies entirely on local authorities to investigate, detain and prosecute criminal suspects.
Chu further stressed China’s firm stance against human trafficking and all associated criminal offenses. “China adopts a zero‑tolerance policy toward any criminal acts committed by Chinese citizens on Bangladeshi soil,” he affirmed.
