Vietnamese couple ran disabled begging ring in Thailand

Jan 12, 2010, 8:08 GMT

Hanoi - A couple has been charged with trafficking disabled Vietnamese people to Thailand and organizing them into a begging ring, an official said Tuesday.

Le Hong Bao, a prosecutor in southern An Giang province, said Lam Minh Hoang, 59, and his wife Nguyen Thi Nga, 53, had been charged with 'organizing other persons to flee abroad illegally.'

The Vietnamese couple met while working in massage parlours in Cambodia in 1995, according to the indictment. In 2003, they migrated illegally to Thailand, where they found that begging was highly profitable.

In 2006, the couple returned to Vietnam, where they recruited 10 disabled people over the course of three years and sent them through Cambodia to Thailand to join a begging ring.

Prosecutors said the couple had rented two houses, and assigned seven of the disabled to beg while three sold trinkets at pagodas and other public places. Each beggar and peddler paid the couple 300 baht (9 dollars) per day, and kept the remainder.

Eight of the beggars fell out with the couple over the sharing of income, and were sent back to Vietnam. Hoang and Nga were arrested in June while returning to Vietnam from Cambodia.

Under Vietnamese law, if found guilty, the couple face between two and seven years in jail.