May 4,2013 Communist Vietnam -- Human Trafficker Extraordinaire By Michael Benge Vietnam is now the proudpossessor of the inglorious title "The Worst Human Rights Violator inSoutheast Asia," according to recent testimony before the House Committeeon Foreign Affairs. State-affiliated labor export companies are major suppliersof men, women, and children to the forced labor and sex trafficking markets,while government officials profit from kickbacks. Statistics on Vietnam's human trafficking range widely; thoughaccurate information about this communist country is hard to find. Vietnam'sMinistry of Public Security offers an official figure of 2,935 Vietnamese whowere subjected to human trafficking between 2004 and 2009. However,international organizations report a far larger number; more than 400,000 victims since 1990. Eventhis covers only those reported as victims, omitting untold tens of thousandsof abuses that go unnoticed, especially in the labor force. Exporting workers is nothing new for Vietnam. After the 1975communist takeover, hundreds of thousands of laborers were sent to the SovietUnion and European Eastern-Bloc countries as a form of war debt payment. Many ended up jobless, in debt, and stranded.Vietnam quickly graduated from supplying forced labor to trafficking women andchildren as sex slaves. State-Sanctioned Sex Slavery Vietnam is a primary supplier for commercial sexual exploitation,as well as forced labor -- and some who start out as laborers also wind upas sex slaves. Fraudulent or misrepresented marriages are one method by whichVietnamese women are exploited. The lure of marriage to a man in acomparatively rich country, coupled with a promised payment of up to $5,000 (ten times the averageannual wage in Vietnam), is often too great a temptation for rural women andtheir impoverished families to resist. Women and children are sent to Cambodia,China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Macau, the Middle East, and Europe. Inturn, Cambodian children are trafficked to urban centers in Vietnam.Increasingly, Vietnam is a destination for child sex tourism, with perpetratorsvisiting from Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan, the UK, Australia,Europe, and the U.S. Women are also shipped to other countries to serve assurrogate mothers. Some are forced to produce babies for families that cannothave their own, while others have their babies sold for adoption by foreigners,primarily from Western countries. Russia: a Case in Point Ms. Hui Danh recentlytestified about a sex-trafficking and extortion ring that lured youngVietnamese women to Russia with promises of high-paying jobs (by Vietnamesestandards) as waitresses. Instead they were sold to brothels in Moscow. Theoperation was run by government-sanctioned labor agencies, which providedkickbacks to Vietnamese officials. The passports of the young women wereconfiscated; they received only a pittance in pay, and had no health care orany way to return home.Some girls were held captive in Russia for more than four years, and weresavagely beaten if they tried to leave the brothel. Even though they were beingheld against their will, they still had to pay rent and were charged for theirmeager food and clothing. Ms. Danh's younger sister Be Huong was one of the sex slaves.After several months, her impoverished parents received a call asking for moneyto pay for medical expenses. They scraped together $300 and sent it to her. Afew weeks later she called again saying that the employment agency in Vietnamhad agreed to let her return home, but she would need $2,000 for air travel.Ms. Dang, who was living in the U.S., borrowed the money and sent it to theemployment agency. Soon the amount was raised to $4,000, and later to $6,000;clearly, it was extortion. In February of this year, 13 months after her enslavement, BeHuong escaped from the brothel, along with three other victims. She was able tocontact the Consular Envoy, Nguyen Dong Trieu, in the Vietnamese Embassy inMoscow and begged for his help. Trieu told her that prostitution was not legalin Russia and said, "Whoever brought you here, ask them to take youhome." Two days later, Be Huong and the other three victims wererecaptured by the brothel guards, and the three girls with her were severelybeaten. Be Huong later learned that the Madame of the brothel in Moscow was agood friend of the Consular Envoy, who had betrayed the girls. When Ms. Danh learned of her sister's plight, she contacted twoU.S. non-government organizations; Boat People SOS, and the Coalition toAbolish Modern-Day Slavery in Asia, which put her in contact with CongressmanAl Green and the State Department. Through their efforts and with assistancefrom the media, Be Huong was returned to Vietnam, but not without costs. First,she was forced by the brothel Madame -- Thuy An -- to call her parents and askthem to withdraw their complaint to the Vietnamese police about the employmentagency. Ms. Danh also had to submit a written apology to the Madame for wronglyaccusing her of sex trafficking. Finally, she was also forced to write a letterto Vietnamese officials in Moscow thanking them for helping with Be Huong'srepatriation. Only then was she allowed to leave. Finally, Be Huong was allowed to go to the Vietnamese Embassy;there she was told by staff member Kien that her release was conditional. Shehad to write a letter stating what she had told her relatives about Madam ThuyAn was inaccurate, and one thanking the embassy officials and Madam Thuy An forhaving helped her with repatriation. The Vietnamese Embassy had of course done nothing, nor had MadamThuy An, for it was only through diplomatic and media pressure that Be Huongwas allowed to go home. Through continued pressure, six other victims werefinally released and returned to Vietnam. Eight others remain enslaved byMadame Thuy An, with the assistance of the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow. Labor Trafficking Vietnam started its labor trafficking by taking a page from theplaybook of communist Field Marshal Tito, who exported surplus labor as a safety valve toreduce resistance amongst Yugoslavia's youth. Tito was an extreme and ruthlessdictator (though quite popular in the West) who served as "President forLife" until his death in 1980. Communist Vietnam now exports a great share of its labor force inan attempt to quell the unrest fermenting in that country, as well to increaserevenue; in 2007, Vietnamese working in foreign countries sent home theequivalent of US $2 billion.Vietnam has a labor force of more than 51.4 millionworkers, and 70% of thepopulation is under 30years of age. Despite the labor trafficking, 12% -- 10 million -- of Vietnam'sremaining workers are jobless, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Vietnamese government set a goal to send 500,000 workersoverseas in 2005, and the number has been increasing ever since. In 2008,Vietnam reached anagreement with Qatar toincrease the number of workers to be sent to the Middle East from 10,000 to tentimes that number by the end of 2010. The Art of Trafficking Many labor export companies in Vietnam are part of intricatetrafficking syndicates and extortion rings, and government officials and banksare frequently involved. Applicants are deceived by contracts -- dubbed hop dong noi -- "domestic contract," thatdescribe the type of work, good working conditions, and decent pay; however,they may have to pay as much as $10,000 just toapply. Applicants are often encouraged to seek a loan, such as onefrom a state-owned Agricultural and Rural Development Bank, to cover the fee,using their parents' property as collateral. If the loan is not enough, theparents have to mortgage or sell their remaining properties. After the non-refundable application fee is paid, the workers areoften given the real contract to sign only a day or so before leaving. Thistypically stipulates different terms than the original contract, using legalterms they cannot understand. Once in the destination country (which may not bethe one they signed up for), the workers' passports and documents areconfiscated and they are forced to sign yet another contract, hop dong ngoai -- "foreign contract," in aforeign language they cannot understand at all. Thus they find themselvesworking longer hours under substandard conditions, for much less pay thanpromised, with little or no access to medical care. Many times, workers are notfully paid and are held in debt bondage, while being forced to make mandatorymonthly payments to the labor export company. As a result, workers cannot payoff their loans, have no money to return home, and their families lose theirland and other properties. The Vietnamese Embassies provide little or no help to theseexploited people. True, the Vietnamese government has passed laws against humantrafficking, and prosecutes a few cases now and then; but that is just windowdressing. It's a charade to fool the UN, the U.S., and other gullible donorcountries into believing that Vietnam's communist government is addressing theissue. Meanwhile, the labor and sex trade goes on with a wink and a nod fromofficials who are on the take. By the way, did you know it's against the law inVietnam to report corruption? And the band plays on... http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/communist_vietnam_human_trafficker_extraordinaire.html#ixzz2SLDuR01a Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
