HumanTrafficking.org | Vietnam International Organization: The Asia Foundation

A web resource for combating human trafficking

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Vietnam

The Asia Foundation

Address

The Asia Foundation
#10-03 Prime Centre
53 Quang Trung St.
Hanoi
Vietnam

Contact Information

If calling from Vietnam:

Tel: 04 943 3263
Fax: 04 943 3257

If calling from overseas:

Tel: +84 4 943 3263
Fax: +84 4 943 3257

Website

http://www.asiafoundation.org

Email

info@asiafound.org.vn

Activities

The Asia Foundation recognizes that to have a meaningful impact on trafficking, both local and national solutions are essential and must be linked to broader regional and international initiatives. The Asia Foundation employs a multi-pronged approach to combating trafficking in Vietnam.

1. Enhancing Local Capacity

The Foundation has partnered with the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) since 1994 and the Center for Education Promotion and Empowerment for Women (CEPEW) since 1998. The Foundation has worked closely with both organizations to help them design, plan, and implement a range of anti-trafficking activities. These have included capacity-building to train their staff and others on the complex set of social and legal issues related to trafficking and facilitating their engagement in regional anti-trafficking activities.

2. Community Participation & Intervention

Because many trafficking victims actually know their traffickers, the need for communities to reach out to their members is critical. The Asia Foundation has established community monitoring and support groups in two communes each in An Giang, Quang Ninh, and Can Tho Provinces to increase community awareness of the trafficking problem, which can aid prevention. These groups organize public information sessions on trafficking, work to include trafficking on the agenda of the commune meeting, monitor the local trafficking situation, indentify the migration of women and children lured by strangers and provide basic counseling to victims as well as vulnerable women and children.

Overall, these community monitoring and support groups have proven to be an innovative and effective first line of defense against trafficking. The Prime Minister has recently decided to institute such a mechanism in all communes in Vietnam, and the Foundation will continue to work with local partners to support establishment of these groups in other locales.

3. Economic Empowerment

Because of official condemnation of illegal prostitution as well as a prohibition on emigrating without notifying authorities, many survivors of trafficking are left with few avenues to receive assistance. Often, they are reluctant to seek help for fear of further abuse by traffickers, debt bondage, punishment from government authorities for illegal border crossing, or stigma from being labeled a prostitute. This isolation and fear leaves them vulnerable to re-trafficking.

The Asia Foundation has worked closely with VWU and CEPEW in Quang Ninh and An Giang Provinces to address this problem and establish programs that provide trafficking survivors and at-risk women with vocational training, job placement, and micro-loans to pursue business opportunities. More than 1,000 women have received micro-loans. Participating women have become key players in monitoring to prevent trafficking, have gained more economic opportunties, and have participated more confidently in community decisions.

4. Cross-border Collaboration

With The Asia Foundation's support, VWU organized and hosted two cross-border workshops between Vietnam-Cambodia in An Giang Province and between Vietnam-China in Quang Ninh Province. More than 50 participants attended, representing governments and non-governmental organizations working on trafficking in persons in Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. Participants discussed the trafficking situation, existing anti-trafficking legal instruments in each country, and strategies to prevent trafficking and protect victims. These workshops have helped to enhance mutual understanding of the current trafficking situation between Vietnam and China and Cambodia. Participants also developed country-specific action plans to improve cross-border cooperation.

Cross-border cooperation is leading to the extradition of traffickers back to Vietnam from China for prosecution. The Foundation is committed to the effort of promoting better cross-border cooperation to combat trafficking and will continue to work with partners to find effective ways to do so throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

5. Legal Aid Support

The Asia Foudation is providng legal assistance for victims of trafficking in Quang Ninh, An Giang, and Can Tho Provinces in partnership with the National Legal Aid Agency of the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice. Working at the provincial, district, and commune levels, this program provides trafficking surviviors with representation at hearings, case handling, legal counseling, and assistance with reinstating their land and/or house, re-registering their citizenship, and obtaining birth certificates for their children. Thus far, the program has provided legal counseling to 109 victims, free legal aid services for nine victims, and representation at 15 court hearings. The program aslo seeks to build the capacity of an inter-agency network to increase in-country coordination among relevant government agencies and organizations through training and information dissemination.

6. Scholarships for Disadvantaged Girls

It is recongized that girls who attend secondary school are less susceptible to exploitation and abuse, have expanded job opprotunties, and are better prepared to play an active role in society. Increasing opportunities for girls to learn basic skills opens up more prospects for them and makes them less vulnerable to traffickers. To that end, The Asia Foundation supported the scholarship program that allows girls of disadvantaged families to attend and complete primary and lower secondary school and provides additional ways for them to learn basic skills. The program is currently supporting 140 girls from poor families in the Mekong delta and a province in the Red River delta.

Publications:

"Combating Trafficking of Women and Children in Vietnam", April 2006.