Vietnamese police bust child-trafficking ring

Jul 15, 2009, 5:20 GMT

   Hanoi - Hanoi arrested seven people from an alleged child-trafficking ring that sold 33 newborn babies to China, a police official said Wednesday.

   'This is the first time we have found such a large-scale case,' said Truong Tho Toan, deputy director of the city's Department of Social Order Crimes Investigation. 'The arrestees did not confess their crimes, but we have gathered sufficient evidence to charge them.'

   Tho said the ring included nine members. Seven were arrested on charges of trafficking children, but the other two escaped. Police were were hunting for them, he said.

   The state-run An Ninh Thu Do newspaper on Wednesday reported the ring started work in 2007, and was exposed in February last year. It took police several months to investigate and make arrests because the syndicate operated throughout the country.

   The newspaper said the culprits often went to remote areas where parents find it hard to raise children or approached mothers in difficult situations at hospitals to ask for their newborn babies.

   They told mothers they wanted to adopt newborn babies as their own and promised to bring them up properly. Many mothers who believed their children would have a better lives entrusted their children to human traffickers.

   Police said the ring successfully sold 33 children to China for up to 1,412 dollars each.

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