Giving Compass' Take:

• Catherine Caruso covers the trafficking of Pakistani women to Chinese nationals, and why Pakistan is failing to prosecute due to economic ties with China.

• How can international NGOs step in to stop this alarming trend?

• Learn how donors can make an impact on human trafficking.

Hundreds of Pakistani women and girls were sold as brides to men in China, according to a list acquired by the Associated Press.

Traffickers are increasingly targeting Christian communities in Pakistan, which represent a poor, religious minority in the country. Local trafficking rings are often comprised of Christian ministers, who are bribed into urging their parishioners to sell their daughters to men seeking brides in China. Families who sell their daughters to be trafficked receive a small fee in exchange.

After being sold as brides to Chinese men, many of the trafficked women and girls are abused and forced into prostitution. Some girls even reach out to their families and beg them to take them back.

While other cases have been brought before the courts in Pakistan, the Chinese defendants fled the country after making bail.

Pakistan relies on China economically and has subsequently been careful not to sound the alarm on the trafficking epidemic so as not to damage its economic relationship with China, according to the AP.

Read the full article about more than 600 Pakistani girls sold as brides to China by Catherine Caruso at Global Citizen.