Women and children in China face a growing threat of being trafficked and sold into marriage or s... Women, kids face growing t

Women and children in China face a growing threat of being trafficked and sold into marriage or sex work, as labor migration and a widening gender imbalance put them at risk, an international aid group said on Wednesday.

About 119 boys are born in China for every 100 girls, an imbalance that has grown since Beijing introduced a one-child policy more than 25 years ago that has bolstered a traditional preference for boys, resulting in abortions of female fetuses and abandonment of baby girls.

The strict family-planning policy means China will be home to 30 million more men of marriageable age than women by 2020, state media has reported.

Migration for employment was also leaving many vulnerable to traffickers, both rural workers who move across the country to huge urban centers, and children who are left behind, often without adequate care.

The Ministry of Public Security recorded 2,500 cases of trafficking in China in 2006, but that figure only includes resolved cases, rather than those reported.

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