14 women forced to work at karaoke bars rescued

The women, aged 18-25, were held captive by eight men at a house with no official address in Bien Hoa Town early this month, a joint investigation by police in Bien Hoa and officers from the Ministry of Public Security found.

The rescue of the women came after police investigated several karaoke bars in Bien Hoa where female employees offer sexual services to customers.

Following the rescue, police arrested Nguyen Thi Cam Tuyen, her husband Tran Dinh Hung, and 11 others on Monday.

Tuyen and Hung, both 31, are believed to have run a trafficking ring that tricked and forced women to work against their will at karaoke bars in Bien Hoa.

The couple now face five charges of illegally keeping people, property appropriation, providing heavy-interest loans in civil transactions, organization of prostitution activities, and fraud.

Police also seized many weapons and documents related to usurious loans at their residence.

Nguyen Thi Cam Tuyen at a police station in Dong Nai Province, December 5, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Thai Ha

They said the couple had connected with job brokers in HCMC to trick women to work at their karaoke bars, promising them high salaries and decent working environment.

When the women came, Tuyen gathered them at the house with no address in Bien Hoa and had men hold them captive.

Then she took them to karaoke bars and forced them to offer sexual services to customers.

Tuyen and her husband also made each woman borrow VND20-25 million ($830-1,000) at the interest rate of 20-30% per month and forced them to work to pay the loan.

Cases of girls being tricked and sold to karaoke and massage parlors are not rare in Vietnam. In most cases, they come from poor families and drop out of school early and are lured by recruitment information on social media promising high salaries put out by human traffickers.