Arrested a woman from Nghe An who organized to send 21 people to the US and Europe illegally

In early July 2020, 4 citizens residing in Dien Xuan, Dien Thap, and Dien Chau districts (Nghe An) filed a complaint about being taken abroad to work by Pham Thi Huong, born in 1982, residing in Ma Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district.

Each worker spent about 45,000 USD to give to Huong to realize her dream of going abroad. However, after a period of living in hiding in Europe, the dream of working abroad with the hope of earning a high income and improving their lives suddenly disappeared, and these workers were deported back to their home country because they did not have any legal documents.

After verification, realizing that there were many signs of crime, with many subjects participating with sophisticated tricks and a wide scope, Yen Thanh District Police established a special project to concentrate forces to fight and clarify.

Subject Pham Thi Huong at the police station. Photo: Duc Vu

On July 13, 2020, the investigation team determined that Pham Thi Huong had returned to her locality, so they organized to solve the case and arrest the subject for organizing others to flee abroad.

The Investigation Police Agency searched Pham Thi Huong's residence, confiscating 03 notebooks, 05 airline tickets and 200 documents of various money transfer transactions. During the investigation, Huong initially confessed that from around May 2019 to around March 2020, Pham Thi Huong colluded with a number of subjects at home and abroad to organize for 21 people to travel to countries in Europe and the US under the guise of tourism, then stayed behind to work illegally, the amount of money that Huong collected from the workers was 218,000 USD and 266,000 million VND.

For each worker who agrees to go abroad, Huong will collect about 45,000 USD/person, paid in installments. To gain the trust of the workers, the final payment will be transferred to Huong when the worker has gone to work abroad.

Mr. NTD, residing in Dien Thap district, a victim of the illegal labor export ring, said: Huong took us to Ho Chi Minh City to complete procedures to fly to New Zealand. When we got off the plane, someone picked us up and took us to a hotel for a week. The subjects asked us to call our families to pay the agreed amount. Because we were overseas and did not know anyone, we had to do as agreed. Only when we were arrested by the local police did we realize we had been scammed.

According to the victims' statements, after going abroad, they were all arrested by the local police because they did not have legal documents. Some victims are still in refugee camps abroad.

Investigators from Yen Thanh District Police said: Due to the complex nature of the network, involving many victims in Nghe An, Quang Binh, and Ha Tinh provinces, the verification work encountered many difficulties. Each victim, who was promised by Huong to work abroad, would have a stable income of 4,000 - 5,000 USD/month as a worker or farmer harvesting crops. All paperwork would be taken care of, and when they went abroad, someone would sponsor them to stay and work.

Currently, the Investigation Police Agency of Yen Thanh District Police has initiated a case, prosecuted the accused, and detained Pham Thi Huong for 4 months for the act of organizing others to flee abroad, and at the same time transferred the entire case file and the subject to the Investigation Security Agency - Nghe An Provincial Police for further investigation and expansion.