18 girls were held captive in a karaoke bar, one of them was only 13 years old.

On April 27, Bac Giang Provincial Police announced that they had initiated a criminal case, prosecuted and detained Duong Thi Thao (30 years old, owner of Moonlight massage parlor), Duong Dinh Kien (28 years old) and Hoang Thi Ngoc (30 years old), both from Thai Nguyen province, to investigate the crime.sure, illegal detention.

At the Moonlight karaoke and massage business (Doi Ngo town, Luc Nam district, Bac Giang province), girls, even children as young as 13 and 14 years old, were detained and beaten by some people at this business for long periods of time.

Hoang Thi Phi N. (16 years old) in Ha Giang province was just rescued by the Criminal Police Department, Bac Giang Provincial Police from the Moonlight karaoke and massage parlor at the end of March after nearly 2 years of being illegally held by the owner of this establishment, Duong Thi Thao (born in 1995) and the subjects here to serve the karaoke and massage business. Until now, N. is still scared when thinking about the time she spent there.

N. said that around May 2023, he looked for a job on Facebook and saw that this establishment was recruiting staff to clean tables and serve coffee, so he took a bus from Ha Giang to My Dinh bus station, Hanoi. There, someone picked him up and took him to the Moonlight karaoke and massage business to work.

Initially, N. was given a contract by the owner of the establishment with a salary of 5 million VND/month for cleaning and serving. However, after that, N. had to press songs in the karaoke bar and massage customers. If she could not do the job or if a customer complained that she did not do it well, she would be beaten.

To avoid detection by the employees' families and authorities, Duong Thi Thao directed Duong Dinh Kien (born in 1997, residing in Luong Son ward, Song Cong city, Thai Nguyen province) and Hoang Thi Ngoc (born in 1995, residing in Van Yen commune, Dai Tu district, Thai Nguyen province) to manage and supervise the employees.

The employees had to work from 8am to 12pm and from 3pm to 3am the next morning. All activities and work were confined to a room with bunk beds and Thao's house. Thao's family's house was surrounded by a high wall.

Upon arrival, the employees had their phones and IDs confiscated and were only allowed to call home occasionally under the supervision of Kien and Ngoc. The content of the calls was only to inform their families that the work was good. Kien and Ngoc slept in the same room with the employees to manage and supervise. When sleeping, Kien and Ngoc locked the door twice to prevent the employees from escaping.

The employees were not even allowed to use their real names but were given new names by the subjects. Therefore, there was almost no chance of escaping and reporting to the outside.

N. is just one of 18 girls - employees of the Moonlight karaoke and massage parlor who were "confined". Among them, there are also 2 children aged 13 and 14 from the Northwestern provinces who are also victims. The rest are mainly girls aged 16 to 20 from many other provinces and cities. Most of them are from the Northwestern provinces.

Many girls tried to run away, some even tried four times but failed. In extreme cases, one girl picked up rat poison in the campus and drank it, but fortunately there were no consequences.