'Paper marriages' and the peddling of false hopes in Nepal

Young, poor women marry Chinese, Korean men only to discover life is not what was promised.

In this photo taken on a phone camera and given to ucanews.com by a woman who agreed to marry a Chinese man through a Kathmandu marriage agency, young Nepali women meet their new Chinese and South Korean husbands

Kathmandu:  When Sunita Kulung Rai agreed to move to China and marry a man she barely knew, it was with dreams of making a better life for her family.

She had visions of a sprawling, modern city with massive towers, wide roads and super-sized malls — pretty much the opposite of her poor, remote village in Nepal. But when the 28-year-old arrived last year, she found an even tougher life than the one she had given up.

The impressive buildings she had seen in photos were replaced by open fields; the paved streets were freezing country lanes covered in snow and garbage. Even her husband, the man she had married just a few days after meeting him in Nepal, was not a promising civil servant on the way up, but a landless farmer with no steady income.

Now, more than a year later, Rai believes she has been duped, but does not know what to do. She spoke with ucanews.com recently by phone, waiting until nighttime for everyone in her family to fall asleep.

“I was told that my Chinese husband … would love me and take care of me,” said Rai, which is not her real name.

Instead, she says, she now lives in isolation and seclusion. She claims she’s rarely allowed to leave the house, that her parents-in-law beat her and abuse her, and that her new husband forces her to have sex against her will.

“I was told by the agents in Nepal that within one or two months of coming here, I would be allowed to work and earn money on my own,” she said. “But instead, I was duped into a fake marriage that has ended up making me a captive in a foreign land.”

Human rights groups say Rai is one of an increasing number of Nepali women who are lured into so-called “paper marriages”, mainly in China and South Korea. Enticed by promises of a comfortable home and job opportunities, they agree to marry virtual strangers, only to find their new lives are nothing like they were promised.

Earlier this month, the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police raided an office in the capital, Kathmandu, arresting two Nepalese and a Korean national. The business was called the Chheru International Marriage Bureau; for a price, it arranged “paper marriages” between young Nepali women and older Chinese and South Korean men.

For Kiran Bajracharya, deputy superintendent with the police and head of the CIB, complaints of young women being trafficked to Chinese cities to work in the entertainment sector were not uncommon. What was new in this case, at least to police, was an apparent victim who said she had married into an abusive relationship.

“The seriousness of trafficking in the form of marriages came to light after a young girl fled her Chinese husband’s home in Harbin and returned to Nepal early this month, sharing her story with police,” he said.

During the marriage bureau raid, police found five Nepali girls aged between 17 and 22, who were already married to Chinese and Korean men almost twice their ages. They were preparing to fly to destinations in China and South Korea when they were found. Bajracharya estimated another 20 girls and women were in the process of being married off at the same bureau.

Bajracharya said police found that agents recruit prospective wives — preferably those with “Mongolian features” — from poor economic backgrounds in remote areas and bring them to Kathmandu, where they are married off to primarily Chinese and Korean men. The women’s photos are snapped and sent to foreign men to choose their brides.

The agency can charge its foreign customers as much as US$25,000 for its services, Bajracharya said.

“Most of the girls don’t even know the name of their husband and what they do. They are brainwashed,” he said.

Bajracharya said the three people arrested this month will face human trafficking-related charges in court. The police now believe there are at least 84 similar agencies around the country, mostly concentrated in Kathmandu.

High costs, high risks

“Paper marriages” are a financial transaction for both parties.

Rai, speaking on the phone from China, said she agreed to marry someone she barely knew because she was convinced by the promises of potential wealth in China — she claimed an agent told her she could find jobs paying US$15,000 a month. She believed that marrying a foreigner was the only option she had to try for a better life abroad.

“I wanted to get my family out of poverty,” she said.

It has also cost her new husband. Rai says her husband paid about US$16,000 to arrange the marriage at his end. She says struggling single men from often rural, lower-middle classes are convinced to opt for “paper marriages”, fearing that they won’t find a Chinese woman to marry, to provide a child, or to look after aging parents.

“The agents lure their clients in China to marry poor Nepali brides by telling them that the marriage would require a minimum investment compared to what they would spend marrying a Chinese bride,” Rai said.

Like Rai, 19-year-old Sima Sharma also agreed to a “paper marriage” in the hopes of improving her livelihood. In an interview with ucanews.com, she said she was always aware of the transactional nature of the arrangement.

“They even told me that the marriage was just a sham and a way to facilitate my entry to a foreign land,” she said. “Within a couple months, [they said] I would be working in an office and within a few more months, I would be allowed to take my whole family to China.”

When she reached China earlier this year, however, she realized she had been lied to. Her husband, she said, forced himself on her and told her he could do anything he wanted to because he had paid “a hefty amount” to bring her there.

“He's wanted me to bear children since day one,” she said.

After two weeks, Sharma escaped the house through a window and asked Chinese police for help.

She says she was soon returned to Nepal, setting into motion the events that led to the police raid this month on the marriage agency in Kathmandu.


Poverty drives trend

Transnational marriages are quickly becoming a serious human trafficking problem, according to Nilambar Badal, programme director at the Kathmandu-based Asian Human Rights and Culture Development Forum (AHRCDF), a non-governmental organization working on migration issues.

He said the first complaint about “paper marriages” he heard of was a 2005 case where a Nepali woman married a South Korean man, though he believes the practice was going on well before that time.

“China is now emerging as the newest destinations besides South Korea and the trend is growing,” he said.

Poverty, Badal says, is driving often poor, uneducated Nepali women into “the trap” of a brokered marriage.

“Generally the prospective girls are told by the agents that once they enter the foreign country, they will be free and can work to earn money,” he said.

Rights groups in countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia have warned of similar problems in recent years. As authorities there attempt to crack down on the practice, the industry has shifted to a country like Nepal, where he says publicity about the issue has been very recent.

At this stage, pinpointing accurate data on an emerging issue is difficult. Nepal's embassy in Seoul says it has recorded at least 1,000 female migrant workers who entered Korea through marriage bureaus from roughly 2005 to 2013. Badal estimates three to five Nepali brides are sent to South Korea each month.

Whatever the numbers, he says Nepal must take immediate steps to address a burgeoning problem.

“We cannot completely stop the marriage between a foreigner and Nepali girl, but we can bring measures that discourage young girls from falling into traps through fake promises,” he said.

At minimum, there must be more basic checks and balances that make it difficult for transactional marriages to take place. Mandatory counseling, separate from those provided by the marriage bureaus, could be instituted so that Nepali women are fully aware of what they are signing up for.

However, the basic problem remains that Nepali women are driven to “paper marriages” because of a lack of opportunities at home.

“There is desperation among Nepali women to go abroad to earn money to support themselves and their families,” said Sapana Pradhan Malla, a lawyer and women’s rights activist with the Kathmandu-based Forum for Women, Law and Development.

“Both men and women don’t have alternative employment opportunities inside the country to support the poverty-ridden families so they are forced to take up any option that facilitates there entry into foreign country.”

Ram Prasad Bhattarai, under-secretary at Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, acknowledges that the country has failed to provide enough job opportunities to women, which has forced many women and girls to opt for more risky migration alternatives.

Bhattarai said the government is taking the issue of “paper marriages” seriously.

“The latest reports have drawn the attention of high-level government officials, including the prime minister, who has demanded strict actions,” Bhattarai said.

Authorities, he said, are looking into developing “proper legal frameworks” that clearly define rules around transnational marriages, instituting “strict restrictions” and monitoring of marriage bureaus and working toward “bridging the growing inequality between men and women in the country”.

“The trafficking of young girls and women in the name of marriage is a serious issue for any country and needs a holistic approach involving all the concerned ministries and partners to discourage this trend,” Bhattarai said.

False promises

For now, Nepali brides who enter into “paper marriages” based on false promises say authorities in both Nepal and in destination countries can take immediate action by at least putting an end to existing marriage networks.

Rina Tamang, 17, was one of the girls found during the police raid on the Chheru marriage bureau in Kathmandu this month. She’s now receiving counseling at a shelter in Kathmandu.

Tamang, also not her real name, said she met a Korean man — whose name she cannot pronounce properly — and married him within a day. He returned to Korea and she was meant to join him after taking language classes in Kathmandu.

“Now that I know the truth behind this marriage and life afterwards, I no longer intend to go there,” she told ucanews.com in an interview. “I have filed a case against the bureau, and would like to work to prevent other girls like me from falling into this trap.”

But for Rai, the 28-year-old who moved to China last year, it may be too late, at least for the moment.

Three months ago, she gave birth to a baby. Her husband told her that if she wants to return to Nepal, she first has to pay the US$16,000 he claims he paid an agent to marry her in the first place. And he’s also demanding that she leave her baby behind.

Source: UCAN