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Human Trafficking of Vietnamese on the Rise

A conference to review the first phase of a Vietnamese program to combat the trafficking of women and children had little good news to report in Hanoi.

The trafficking of Vietnamese women and children, mainly across borders with China and Cambodia, has continued increasing as perpetrators have come to disguise their trade more cleverly.

Over the past two years, human traffickers have sent thousands Vietnamese women and children abroad, using cunning tricks to lure victims. Many victims are told they will be happily married, visit lost relatives, or work and travel leisurely on the other side.

But most of the cheated women and children are then sold to brothels, forced to work as sex slaves or work hard labor. The conference showed that during two years’ implementation of Program 130/CP, Vietnam discovered 568 human trafficking cases involving 993 people that illegally sold 1,518 women and children abroad.

Several years ago, the human markets were only China, Laos and Cambodia, but they are now expanding to Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. Participants at the conference expressed their concerns over the rising trade of young men from Vietnam used for compulsory labor or selling organs abroad. Many international organizations have recently warned Vietnam over this problem.

Asked by Thanh Nien about the possibility of adding men trafficking prevention into the Program 130/CP, Deputy Minister of Public Security Le The Tiem said his agency would put forth solutions to fight against human trafficking in all its forms, including the trafficking of men.

According to a recent survey, several women and children fortunate enough to have been rescued and brought back home have gone through severe mental shock and trauma due to inhuman tortures they suffered. Many victims have problems reintegrating into society.

In 2005 and 2006, some 1,280 victims of human trafficking were brought back to Vietnam, 122 of whom were rescued and sent home by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Adapted from: "Vietnam’s human trafficking plague still on the rise." Thanh Nien News. 6 April 2007.