Vietnam women arrested for trafficking of minors

Pham Thi Tu, 61, and Luong Thi Hai, 31, are under investigation for “trafficking people, trafficking in people under the age of 16, and organizing for other people to enter Vietnam illegally.”

Police in the Mekong Delta’s Bac Lieu Province said Wednesday that Tu and Hai targeted women who came from poor families, and those who were divorced or were suffering from business struggles.

They lured them to China for employment and promised to pay their families VND90-100 million (US$3,792-4,215).

However, once the victims were in China, the two accused women sold them as wives to Chinese men at prices of around VND300-400 million each.

Between 2019 and 2021, Tu and Hai’s ring pocketed more than VND1 billion by kidnapping 30 women in the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City-adjacent Binh Duong Province.

Some women were abused by their Chinese husbands and begged to be released.

In order to escape and return home, they then had to pay the human trafficking ring more than VND100 million.

Some of the women were able to do so and then reported Tu and Hai to police.

Police report that they have identified seven more members of the ring and are currently tracking them down.

Hundreds of thousands of women from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar have been smuggled or taken to China to wed local men, activists say. Some end up happily married, but many others suffer violence and forced labor.