In what seems to be an extremely bold video posted online, a Chinese woman boastfully shares about three young girls brought in from a rural border region in China. The three Uyghur girls from Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, traveled more than sixty hours. They were going to be “interviewed” and given a medical check-up, assigned a dormitory, and put to “work.”

The video was initially posted on a Chinese social media site and has now made its way to other platforms. The video shows three young girls asleep in the back of the vehicle. The title of the video is “Today I Received Uyghur Girls.”

 

The video seems to be showing a recruiter with “voluntary” girls ready to “work,” but the fact that they are all young teenagers begs the question, “how ‘voluntary’ can this actually be?” These three young girls “voluntarily” leaving their homes in far away Xinjiang Province, leaving their parents, family, friends, school, and the only world they have ever known, to go and work in another province? This is the world of trafficking that most people are not familiar with. It is easy to hear the word “trafficking” and assume that it is kidnapping of women, holding them in dungeons, and forcing them into prostitution.

In actuality, the world of trafficking is more complicated than that. Often times, young women and their families in poor rural areas are presented with economical opportunities abroad. Headhunters are professional marketers and know exactly what to say and how to say it to make the opportunities seem too good to be true. Young girls sign contracts and agree to terms that put them in immediate debt. They owe their new employer money for plane tickets, food, transportation, lodging, etc. Their travel documents are often taken until these debts are paid. Their wages are, more often than not, barely enough to cover even a fraction of the incurred costs, locking them into horrible situations of guilt, shame, and often leading to more sinister ways of repaying the debt.

This is one of the reasons why BTJ has set up a recruiting agency, where Christian women recruiters help young women to find lucrative jobs that are legitimate and help steer them clear of scams which lock them into trafficking situations. For security reasons, details about the agency can’t be shared, but BTJ recruiters was set up as a Business as Mission project, directly supported by BTJ GateKeepers.

BTJ GateKeepers are individuals who hunger to do more to help the Chinese House Church and complete the Great Commission. GateKeepers helped support a special project, so that perhaps young girls would be able to find economic opportunities and not fall into the trap of human traffickers.

To join this effort, please click here to learn more:

GateKeepers