Madagascar investigates alleged network sending women to China for marriage
In Madagascar, police are investigating an alleged network that may have arranged trips by local women to China to marry Chinese citizens. The case of a young Malagasy woman, who was stopped last month at Ivato International Airport before departing for China, prompted the investigation, South China Morning Post reports.
According to local media, citing police, the woman was promised 10 million ariary, or about $2,300, after arriving in China and marrying a Chinese man. Four people were reportedly detained as part of the investigation, while police seized forged stamps, documents and 10 Malagasy passports. Investigators believe that several women may have already travelled to China through this network.
Warning from the Chinese Embassy
About a month after the incident in Madagascar, the Chinese Embassy in Malawi urged Chinese citizens not to trust advertisements for “marriage by purchase” or offers to “buy a wife”. In a statement published on September 7, the embassy said that several Chinese citizens had become victims of marriage fraud abroad after using international matchmaking services and paying large sums in bride prices.
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The embassy warned that paying substantial sums to arrange a marriage may create risks related to human trafficking, financial extortion and threats to personal safety. Chinese law prohibits international marriage brokerage services and profiting from such activities.
Cases in Malawi and reasons for demand
In May 2023, Malawi police prevented two Chinese men from leaving the country with two local women because the marriage certificates had been obtained without observing the mandatory 21-day period. In February 2024, a court in Lilongwe sentenced the men and their Chinese accomplice to six years in prison for human trafficking.
Wei Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam who studied marriages between Chinese men and Ethiopian women, said that services for finding foreign wives may offer men an imagined geographical solution to difficulties in getting married in China. Anthropology researcher Cai Chen linked demand to the so-called marriage imbalance in China: men from rural areas or with unstable incomes face high costs for bride prices, housing and often a car. At the same time, she cautioned that the available reliable data are insufficient to speak of the widespread nature of brokered marriages or related abuses across Africa.
