Police arrested a woman in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district on Saturday as she allegedly attempted to take two Cambodian women to China to get married, police said.

The suspect, Och Senghong, 45, was apprehended at the bus station near the Chroy Changvar Bridge, and was yesterday sent to the municipal court, said Municipal Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit chief Keo Thea.

Police sent the two would-be brides, Khoun Cherun, 26, and Phat Rom Pherng, 19, to the Ministry of Social Affairs to educate them on the issues surrounding migrant marriages.

“[Senghong] lured the women from Tbong Khmum province to marry in China. Now the court has issued a warrant to detain the suspect in prison,”

Thea said, adding that Senghong had planned to bring the two women first to Vietnam by bus, then to continue on at night to China.

The suspect had also helped the victims procure passports.

Police said that Senghong was known as a suspected broker, and was recognised before the group could leave for Vietnam.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 82 women were rescued from China in 2015, compared with 59 the year before.