Pakistani girls sold as brides to China

Chinese nationals accused of involvement in a trafficking gang to lure Pakistani women into fake marriages are detained by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency officers in Lahore, Pakistan. - AP

LAHORE: Page after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable.

The list gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018.