Vietnam launches campaign against human trafficking

Jul 14, 2009, 3:40 GMT

   Hanoi- Vietnamese police will launch a two-month campaign next week targeting human trafficking, a police official said Tuesday.

   The General Department of Police has asked its forces nationwide to make plans to combat rings involved in trafficking in border regions, especially areas near China and Cambodia where many women have been trafficked.

   'Human trafficking is becoming very complex in Vietnam due to the economic crisis,' said Nguyen Tri Phuong, deputy director of the National Social Order Crime Investigation Department. 'Traffickers are taking advantage of increasing unemployment to cheat women.'

   Phuong said many women want find it hard to get other work after losing their jobs. Traffickers lure many into their trap by promising good jobs overseas. After taking them out of Vietnam, traffickers sell them to brothels or for other work.

   'One hundred and ninety-one trafficking cases involving 417 women and children have been discovered so far this year,' Phuong said.

   The state-run Viet Nam News on Tuesday reported traffickers often sell women and children they kidnap in northern provinces to contacts in China.

   Traffickers often take advantage of dark nights and a lack of vigilance among families to kidnap their children. In isolated cases, they have murdered parents to kidnap newborn babies.

   Vietnamese police will closely co-ordinate with provincial police and bodies in China, Cambodia and Laos to prevent trafficking rings, Viet Nam News reported.

   Since 2005, there have been 1,600 cases of human trafficking with 4,300 victims and 3,000 people were investigated for involvement.