The sad story behind a human trafficking case

Moong Thi Le (born in 1986, resident of Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district) sat in the defendant's seat, tears falling non-stop. Sitting about 1 meter behind Le was Cut Thi C. (born in 2000), the victim of ahuman traffickingin which Le was identified as the person directly involved.

Young woman "bargains" to sell herself

Cut Thi C. got married early but the marriage was not happy. Often beaten by her husband, C. took her child and returned to her parents' house. In April 2018, C. confided in an acquaintance about her hellish marriage and her current difficult situation, and expressed her desire to go to China to earn money to send back to her parents to raise her child.

This person introduced C. to Moong Thi Le because she knew Le had an acquaintance who was currently living and working in China. After explaining her situation, C. told Le that if she was paid 100 million VND, she would agree to marry a Chinese man. Like a bird afraid of a curved branch, she also set the condition that she "must find a suitable person" before marrying and asked Le for help.

Defendant Mong Thi Le. Photo: Nhu Binh

Moong Thi Le called Xeo Thi Hanh (Le's acquaintance living in China) to inform her that C. wanted to go to China. Hanh said she would pay 90 million VND if C. agreed to come here to get married. Xeo Thi Hanh also promised to pay Le 15 million VND for taking C. to China.

At the end of April 2018, under the guidance of Xeo Thi Hanh, Moong Thi Le took Cut Thi C. across the border to China. A short time later, Hanh handed C. over to another woman, who sold C. to be the wife of a man on this side. After selling C., Xeo Thi Hanh sent her family 90 million VND as promised and paid Le 15 million VND as a salary.

Everything seemed to end there because C. married a Chinese man and sent her parents 90 million VND to raise her first husband's child. Le was paid 15 million VND, more than the 2 million VND that Hanh had promised her. However, C.'s beautiful life prospects quickly ended, this time not by her husband but by her mother-in-law.

"My husband loves me very much, but my mother-in-law is strict and often scolds me. When I gave birth, she did not let me hold or breastfeed the baby, but brought him home to raise. In July 2020, I asked my husband to return to Vietnam to apply for marriage papers, and he agreed. I miss my child so much when I return to Vietnam, but I don't want to go to the other side anymore," Cut Thi C. said.

When C. returned to Vietnam after more than 2 years of no news, the human trafficking ring to China for marriage was also discovered. Moong Thi Le was arrested by the police.

"Help" others, harm yourself

Cut Thi C. also did not understand why Moong Thi Le was arrested and imprisoned for helping her. Seeing Le sobbing throughout the entire trial, C. felt very guilty. "I wanted to go so I asked Le to help. I didn't expect to put her in prison," C. said.

Like C., Le got married very early but luckily she had a husband who loved her. After giving birth to two sons by cesarean section, her husband did not allow Le to have any more children even though she always longed to have a daughter to keep her company.

"Now I also have a daughter, an adopted daughter. The other family had 5 daughters, when they were pregnant with the 6th, she was still a girl so they thought about aborting her. I convinced them not to abort the baby, it was a sin, just give birth and I would raise her. I took care of both mother and child until the baby was 26 days old, then both sides went to the commune to make papers for me to adopt the baby. The baby is now 6 years old, she is beautiful and very attached to her mother," Le said. Her eyes lit up when talking about her children.

Victim Cut Thi C. Photo: Nhu Binh

"C. asked me to take her to China to get married so she could have money to raise her child, so I helped her. I didn't know that it was against the law. She even wrote a commitment not to sue. When C. went to the other side, her family received the money and gave me 1.5 million VND as a thank you," Le still wondered why she had to go to jail for helping someone else.

The judge had to explain in detail that marriage between two people of different nationalities must be permitted by the competent authority with many specific regulations. Taking others abroad must also comply with regulations and can only be done by licensed agencies and organizations. Moong Thi Le and a woman named Hanh took C. abroad to get married, causing the victim to face many risks of having her life, health, honor, dignity violated... This is an act strictly prohibited by law.

After being explained, Le understood that her actions were against the law and asked for leniency so that she could return to her children soon. Victim Cut Thi C. also hoped that the court would consider and reduce Le's sentence.

Considering that the defendant is an ethnic minority with limited legal awareness, and that the victim was partly at fault in this case, after a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced Moong Thi Le to 6 years in prison, lower than the penalty for the crime she was prosecuted for. As for civil liability, the court did not consider it because the victim did not request it.

In this case, there is a woman named Xeo Thi Hanh, whose identity, background, and residential address are currently unknown, so the police have separated the case into another case. When she is arrested, she will be handled later./.