A 52-year-old woman was arrested on Thursday in Kampong Cham’s Kang Meas district, accused of acting as a broker and attempting to lure a woman to China for marriage.

Khut Run, a Kampong Cham town police officer, said the suspect was Kert Kem Yeang.

The victim’s family, he added, filed a complaint to the provincial police, who co-operated with the Ministry of Interior’s anti-human trafficking police and juvenile protection officers to make the arrest.

The woman was lured into the arrangement with an offer of $450 if she agreed to go to China to be married. “She [Kem Yeang] lured the woman by giving gift to them and tell her that she will have a good life when she got to China,” Run said.

Kem Yeang is being held at the provincial police station awaiting a hearing.

A spate of cases in recent months involving the trafficking of Cambodian women to China for arranged marriages has caused concern among rights groups that a troubling new trend may be emerging.