Written by: Christofer Enzo Expert Staff on Security, Dhiya Farras Staff of Research and Development, Fadil Zahwan Head of Kajian Keilmuan HIMAKRIM UI, & Raihanah Azka Staff of Kajian Keilmuan HIMAKRIM UI

Background
Bride trafficking, or usually called the “mail-order bride” phenomenon between Southeast Asia and China, is a form of human trafficking that is too often overlooked. In reality, it is not much different from the other more widely-known forms of human trafficking: victims are promised jobs and decent lives, yet just when the promise of getting out of the poverty circle feels too close to reach, they are forced to marry the person who “ordered” them. Victims are sold and treated as objects after they are coerced to consent to marriage”, placing them in positions prone to being abused and exploited, both by the broker and the “buyer”.

The demand for migrant brides in China has been shaped by a combination of demographic pressures and long-term social transformations. The one-child policy, implemented since the late 1970s, produced a significant gender imbalance that disproportionately affected rural men, many of whom struggled to find local marriage partners. Economic modernization also enabled more Chinese women to pursue education and employment in urban centers, which reduced the number willing to marry within rural communities. Deep-rooted patriarchal sentiments forcing men to become the sole breadwinner has indeed worsened the situation. As demographic pressures intensified without a corresponding supply of potential spouses, families and local networks increasingly viewed cross-border marriage arrangements as a practical solution (Annamalai, 2024).

These conditions created an enabling environment for marriage brokers to exploit the economic disparities between China and several AMS (ASEAN Member States). Women from Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are often recruited through promises of stable marriage or improved economic opportunities. Recruitment typically involves intermediaries operating through both formal and informal networks. In practice, women are asked to pay travel fees or are promised secure employment, yet upon arrival in China, they frequently lose control over their mobility, identity documents, and communication access. Some are placed directly into households without adequate information about their rights or the expectations of the receiving family. These patterns demonstrate how brokers profit from the social and economic vulnerabilities of migrating women and from the informational asymmetry that characterizes cross-border marriage negotiations (Annamalai, 2024).

Bride Trafficking: A (Challenging) Crime
The primary reason these practices constitute a crime lies in the criteria for trafficking defined under the Palermo Protocol. The term refers to three legal instruments on human trafficking, arms trafficking, and money laundering that act as supplementaries to the UNTOC (United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime). The UNTOC and the Palermo Protocol are the first legally binding instruments with internationally recognized definitions of human trafficking, and remain the primary documents referred to when discussing the issue.

The Protocol specifies that trafficking involves three interrelated components that must be analyzed together. The first component is the act, which encompasses recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons. The second component concerns the means, including coercion, deception, abuse of vulnerability, or the provision of payments to those who exert control over another person. The third component concerns the purpose, namely exploitation, which may involve forced labor, domestic servitude, isolation, violence, or other abusive conditions. When women are recruited through false promises, transported across borders, placed in households where their freedom is restricted, and denied viable avenues of exit, all three components of trafficking are fulfilled. Marriage in such contexts no longer reflects an equal social relationship, but becomes a structure designed to facilitate exploitation.

Implementation of the UNTOC and the Palermo Protocol at the national level continues to encounter significant gaps. One of the most persistent gaps concerns the interpretation of consent. Many states view a formal marriage arrangement as evidence of voluntary participation, which makes it difficult for authorities to identify deception or coercion. However, within the framework of trafficking, consent is rendered invalid when obtained under economic pressure, misinformation, or the victim’s lack of understanding of the actual circumstances. Additional weaknesses arise from limited regulation of international matchmaking agencies, allowing recruiters to operate with minimal oversight. Traffickers also exploit disparities across AMS, particularly low law enforcement capacity, inconsistent legal definitions (including criteria on the age of consent), and varying victim-protection procedures.

Beyond the UNTOC and the Palermo Protocol, ASEAN has developed a regional framework through the ACTIP (ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons), which concerns especially women and children. ACTIP requires member states to implement prevention measures, strengthen criminal justice responses, provide victim protection, and engage in cross-border cooperation (ACTIP, 2015). The convention reinforces trafficking as a transnational crime and acknowledges the heightened vulnerability of women and children. Though ACTIP has been ratified and is legally binding, implementation across the region remains uneven. Some countries have relatively comprehensive national frameworks, integrated victim identification mechanisms, multi-agency enforcement mechanisms, and protection services. Yet, others lack adequate victim rehabilitation systems and strong interagency coordination, all the while social stigma against victims continues to hinder reporting and recovery.

Bride Trafficking in Criminology: Routine Activity Theory
The bride trafficking phenomenon can be examined criminologically through the RAT (Routine Activity Theory) (Clarke and Felson, 1993). This theory posits that crime will occur when three core elements are present: (1) the absence of capable guardians, (2) a motivated offender, and (3) a suitable target. In the context of bride trafficking, these three aspects are inseparable from a set of push and pull factors. These two factors specifically highlight the strong demand for ASEAN women from China (the demand side) and the large number of ASEAN women, with all their inherent vulnerabilities, participating in bride trafficking (the supply side).

The absence of a capable guardian aspect can be elaborated through state-related factors, where the state is unable to function as an effective guardian in either prevention or control. This incapacity contributes to the fulfillment of the supply and demand principle. According to Lhomme et al. (2021), in China, the male party must prepare a house and approximately $15,000–$25,000 USD to marry a woman who has undergone urbanization. Conversely, if the male party wishes to marry a woman from an AMS, only $4,500–$5,500 USD is required. This disparity fuels the growing demand from Chinese men to marry women from AMS. Statistically, more than 11,500 transnational marriages originate from low-income families (Yu & Gao, 2019 in Lhomme et al., 2021).

Mirroring the supply side, women from low-income families and with limited education in AMS are considered suitable targets. They possess multiple layers of vulnerability that render them highly susceptible to deception through bride trafficking practices. In numerous cases, the victims are only aware that they are being taken abroad for marriage. They lack understanding regarding necessary administrative requirements and other matters pertaining to their self-protection. This ultimately facilitates fraud executed by traffickers in collaboration with corrupt state apparatus (Lessy, 2006 in Jannah, 2024). This practice results in the loss of official protection for the victims due to administrative malpractice. 

Both factors, supply and demand, collectively provide context for the broker as the motivated offender. The significant profit gained, coupled with various methods used to circumvent regulations, provides the motivation for them to continually engage in bride trafficking. However, this research article argues that the most prominent factor in the ASEAN-China bride trafficking problem is the failure of the state in fulfilling its role as a guardian. A state that is negligent, whether directly through a failure to implement regulations or indirectly by allowing its citizens to live in poverty and ignorance, provides opportunities for traffickers to continually seek victims.

State Failure and the Perpetuation of Bride Trafficking
State negligence becomes evident from the earliest stages of outward mobility, particularly in the state’s failure to implement rigorous verification and screening procedures. Weak document assessment processes, limited oversight of unauthorized recruitment brokers, and the absence of a mechanism capable of distinguishing legitimate transnational marriages from recruitment patterns associated with bride trafficking indicate significant institutional shortcomings. In practice, administrative processing often functions as a routine exercise in which officials prioritize document completeness rather than evaluating clear indicators of vulnerability. These indicators include unusual age differences, the absence of any prior relationship between the parties involved, and sponsors whose identities or motives cannot be verified. The state’s inability to detect exploitative trajectories at an early stage often stems from inadequate interagency coordination and a bureaucratic orientation that places administrative compliance above substantive protection.

The insufficient oversight by embassies in destination countries places the victims in an increasingly difficult position. Many women are unable to seek assistance because their passports are withheld or their access to communication is restricted, while some are even unaware of the appropriate channels to contact. This passive supervision often leads embassies to merely await incoming reports, even though victims are frequently in situations that make reporting impossible. When monitoring mechanisms are ineffective and assistance is inaccessible, victims inevitably remain trapped in the same pattern of exploitation. This condition demonstrates that ineffective diplomatic protection can allow the practice of bride trafficking to persist. In a study on Indonesian diplomacy concerning bride trafficking to China, it was found that embassies have not consistently been able to perform effective monitoring and consular intervention in response to exploitation reports from their citizens abroad (Febrianti, 2024).

Poverty within a nation’s populace is also identified as a significant contributory factor in the occurrence of bride trafficking (Lhomme et al, 2021; Hackney, 2015; Annamalai, 2024). In identified cases of bride trafficking, the male parties who intend to marry women from AMS are willing to offer substantial sums of money (Annamalai, 2024). In one case documented by Lhomme et al. (2021), male parties agreed to pay $30,000 USD to a trafficker. The trafficker subsequently recruits targets with an offer of approximately $4,000 USD. With this incentive, they will seek suitable women, typically those originating from impoverished countries or regions. The women selected are often those who face economic urgency, making them susceptible to the allure of instant financial gain (Annamalai, 2024). Economic vulnerabilities also cause victims to not have many options, including considering running away.

Consistent with this perspective, the level of educational attainment also plays a critical role (Lhomme, Zhong, & Du, 2021; Annamalai, 2024). A low level of education within a country exerts various influences that can contribute to bride trafficking cases. Specifically, low educational attainment among women due to limited access or deeply rooted patriarchal culture intensifies their vulnerability (Hackney, 2015). With limited education, these women lack viable options for securing decent employment, thus making them more susceptible to accepting a broker’s offer as an alternative path. 

Discriminatory cultures against women further sustain the practice of bride trafficking. Unmarried women without employment are often perceived as a burden on the family and pressured to marry immediately. The encouraged marriage is typically with foreign nationals, perhaps driven by the colonial perception that such a union will lead to an improvement in their social and economic status.

Bride Trafficking as a Non-Traditional Security Threat
Based on the meso and micro levels of analysis, it can be understood that the occurrence of bride trafficking is backed by various factors, ranging from culture, government failure, and the strong presence of criminal organizations. However, on the macro level of analysis, which includes the factor of transnationalism, bride trafficking has become a non-traditional security threat to both the ASEAN region, and China itself. The issue constitutes not only a crime against individuals, but also carries broader geopolitical, demographic, and social implications. One thing that makes the problem increasingly complex is the fact that it is systemically perpetuated. The demographic imbalance in China, especially its surplus of men, fuels a persistent demand for “foreign brides” which traffickers exploit through sophisticated, transnational networks and complex fraudulent recruitment processes (Shelley, 2010). 

From a more holistic perspective, trafficking is a direct threat to human security, as it harms public welfare. Human security itself is often considered an antithesis (or perhaps a complement) to the traditional concept of state security, which is associated with military threats (i.e. war). Human security is then perceived as both an obligation and responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals and societies (Kim et al., 2023, pp. 76). It should be noted that state security is impossible to realize without guaranteeing public welfare – the Montevideo Convention states that a state is only a state through its people. Non-traditional security, therefore, marks a shift to this more critical perspective in contrast to seeing the state as the main referent of security studies. 

Bride trafficking is arguably a significant issue to human security as it undermines social stability in ASEAN countries: it weakens communities, exploits marginalized women, and entangles victims in cross-border criminal networks. For China, the reputational and demographic risks are also evident. The practice of bride trafficking not only reflects deep social problems like gender imbalance and an aging population, but also raises serious human rights concerns when these “marriages” mask coercion, servitude, or exploitation mainly driven by the norms of patriarchy. 

Based on the seriousness of the threat this issue poses, ASEAN and China have made commitments to counter it through multilateral and bilateral cooperation. On the ASEAN side, the ACTIP provides a legally binding framework obliging member states to cooperate on prevention, protection, and prosecution. Moreover, during its leaders’ meetings, ASEAN has reaffirmed its commitment to fight trafficking caused by technology abuse through its Leaders’ Declaration on Combating TIP Caused by the Abuse of Technology. This declaration shows that recruitment through apps or social media is one of the most common ways for traffickers to recruit their victims and requires multilateral efforts to secure digital platforms to avoid recruitment (ASEAN Secretariat, 2023). Another important principle to be taken into account is called the NPP (non-punishment principle). The NPP sets out that states must not punish victims of trafficking for committing acts if these crimes are directly related to the acts of their trafficking (ASEAN Secretariat, 2025).

Still, prominent challenges remain. Aside from the aforementioned problems, such as a lack of institutional capacity in implementing solutions, attempts to keep track of human security were introduced only much later. ASEAN only began to conduct “formal” discussions regarding human rights issues after the Cold War. In 1997, ASEAN leaders saw the need to develop ASEAN into a regional organization with agreed norms to solve non-traditional problems, including environmental degradation, drug trafficking, human trafficking especially in women and children, and other transnational crimes (ASEAN, 1997, as cited in Kim et al., 2023, pp. 82). Moreover, the view that women and children are vulnerable groups have also pushed ASEAN to pursue gender-sensitive development policies (Kim et al., 2023, pp. 85). Bride trafficking is generally more difficult to deal with as women are more vulnerable than men due to gender inequalities.

Conclusion
The bride trafficking phenomenon, in which brokers lure women into forced marriages, is a form of human trafficking that tends to be overlooked. Southeast Asia is often the “bride provider” for “buyers” from China. The demand for migrant brides in China has been shaped by the state’s policies and structural problems, such as the one-child policy, economic modernization, and deep-rooted patriarchal sentiments. These conditions later created an environment for marriage brokers to exploit the economic disparities between China and several AMS. 

Although protocols have attempted to solve it, the bride trafficking phenomenon remains far too complex to solve right away. Yet, negligence will lead many to view the state as a failing actor when it comes to protecting and giving its people a sense of security. Therefore, strengthening institutional frameworks and boosting bilateral dialogue is necessary to ensure not only state, but also human security in the ASEAN region. In addition, bride trafficking should be treated as a specific, intersectional matter rather than approached with the same solution as any other form of human trafficking because it harms already-marginalized women. The issue also highlights the urgency of reforming the ASEAN Way so that ASEAN stays relevant in the midst of its repeatedly-occurring failures. 

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