Fleeing from abusive husband, mountain girl was sold abroad by brother-in-law

After being beaten by her husband, she was sold by her brother-in-law.

One day in late July, Chich Thi Quy (name has been changed - PV), residing in Bao Nam commune, Ky Son district, appeared in the courtroom of Nghe An Provincial People's Court as a victim in a child trafficking case. The defendants brought to trial were Moong Thi Nang (27 years old), Ven Pho Ngoc (35 years old), Ven Van Tuan (38 years old), all residing in Bao Nam commune, and Luong Van Soi (35 years old), residing in Pha Danh commune, Ky Son district.

Quy's small figure and dark skin make her look much older than her 23 years of age. Although she is only in her twenties, Quy has been married twice to two men in China and Vietnam. A hard life and many births have made this young woman increasingly miserable. As a victim, Quy recounted her miserable life in a foreign land. According to Quy, about 8 years ago, although she was only 14 years old, she got married and had a child. Her economy only depended on farming, so her life was always lacking. The economic pressure, raising a small child, and disagreements with her husband, who is 3 years older, often caused conflicts between the couple. According to Quy, she was beaten by her husband many times.

The peak was in May 2015, after being beaten by her husband, Quy was so angry that she left her 8-month-old child to go to her brother-in-law Ven Pho Ngoc's farm to find work. After knowing that his sister-in-law wanted to find work, Ngoc contacted Luong Van Soi and Ven Van Tuan to find people to take women to China to sell as wives. Knowing that Moong Thi Nang had just gone to China and had also married a man there, Tuan contacted this woman. After a few exchanges, the subjects took Nang to the farm to see Quy's face and agreed on a price of 60 million VND. A few days later, Nang took the girl, who was over 14 years old, to China.

In a foreign country, Nang and another woman sold the victim to a man in Ha Bac province to marry for 180 million VND. In this case, Nang profited 30 million VND; Tuan, Soi and Ngoc each profited 10 million VND. Ngoc gave Quy’s family 50 million VND, the remaining amount went to the woman in China.

Onionescape

At the trial as a victim in the case, Quy recounted her life under house arrest as a wife in a foreign land. Due to language barriers, Quy did not know her “husband’s” birth year, nor did she know the name of the person she was living with, only vaguely remembering his name when relatives called him. When she was first sold, Quy was under pressure from her husband’s family to have a child soon. Therefore, just a few months after being sold, Quy became pregnant.

“Since I was pregnant, they didn’t force me to work but restricted my contact with outsiders. Because of the language and cultural differences, and not being able to communicate with anyone, I often stayed within four walls as if I were imprisoned. Every night, I felt so homesick for my little child at home,” Quy recalled. When the day came to give birth, due to difficulty in giving birth, Quy had to have a cesarean section to ensure the safety of mother and baby. After a difficult birth, the mother’s health was weakened, but Quy still had to get up to take care of her family and child.

However, during her pregnancy, Quy always had the intention of escaping back to her country as soon as possible, so she secretly saved money. Quy said that because she did not work there, she had no money to spend. Therefore, every time she asked for money to buy a bottle of water, a cake or a dose of medicine, Quy hid some to contribute to the cost of escaping back to her country. In addition, Quy also asked some taxi drivers for information on how to get to Vietnam. One day in mid-2016, when her baby was just over 3 months old, Quy decided to leave her baby behind to escape back to her country. Fortunately, this girl's journey to escape back to Vietnam was helped by some people.

Happinessbelated blessing

After returning to Vietnam, the victim filed a complaint against the people who sold her. At the trial, the defendants admitted to their crimes and expressed remorse. The defendants admitted that they colluded to sell the victim to China because of greed. The defendants spent all the money they earned from the crime. At the trial, the defendants apologized to the victim and asked the court to consider reducing their sentences because they were ethnic minorities.

At the trial, in the presence of many ethnic minorities, the panel of judges analyzed the legal provisions on human trafficking crimes. The act of buying and selling children is a disregard for the law, considering people as goods to be traded and bought and sold. That act has violated the health, honor and dignity of others, especially children, and negatively affected the order and security in the locality. Although the authorities have actively promoted this crime in recent times, it is still complicated, especially in remote areas where people's awareness is somewhat limited.

Through the trial, the panel also reminded people to comply with the law and not to consider people as goods to be bought and sold abroad. Because the above violations are all strictly handled by the law. As for the defendants in the case, after considering the criminal role of each defendant, the panel sentenced Moong Thi Nang to 9 years in prison, Ven Van Tuan to 7 years and 6 months in prison, Luong Van Soi to 7 years in prison, Ven Pho Ngoc to 6 years in prison for the crime of Child trafficking.

The trial ended late at noon, Quy left the court with her husband to return to her hometown where her young child was waiting. According to Quy, the consolation for her was that her husband had changed his personality and no longer beat her like before. “About 2 months after my wife did not return, I learned that Quy had been sold to China. At that time, the child was less than 1 year old, so I had to leave it to my uncle to take care of it and then take a bus to look for it. Although I asked many places, I did not know where China was, so after a while of searching, I had to return. Since then, I have been taking care of the child alone, waiting for the day my wife returns safely,” said the husband who accompanied his wife to court.

Although the happiness was late, for a woman who was a victim of domestic violence, of human trafficking, and had to endure much humiliation and hardship, this was a happy ending for Quy and I hope that the joy and happiness, though late, will last forever!