The story of a young woman forced to be a surrogate mother, and a baby boy sold many times

In 2017, Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh (born 1986, in An Giang) went to China to work and met a man called "Boss". This man discussed and agreed with Oanh about finding a Vietnamese woman to go to China to be a surrogate mother.

According to the agreement, for each successful case, defendant Oanh will receive 10,000 yuan (equivalent to 34 million VND), and the surrogate mother will receive 100,000 yuan, equivalent to 340 million VND.

Around the beginning of 2019, Oanh returned to Vietnam and posted information on Facebook about recruiting people who wanted to go to China. At this time, Cao Xuan Chuong (born in 1990, in Ninh Binh) contacted Oanh. The two agreed that Chuong would be responsible for finding women who accepted surrogacy to bring back to Hanoi.

Oanh then took these people to China to be surrogate mothers. For each successful embryo transfer, Oanh paid Chuong 15 million VND.

To "lure the bait", Truong posted on social networks recruiting women to go to China to work with high salaries.

At the end of September 2019, Tran Minh Th. (born 2005, in Ho Chi Minh City) read a recruitment notice and contacted Chuong. After hearing the promise of a sewing job with a salary of 7 million VND/month, Th. went to Hanoi to meet Chuong, but was then taken to China, forced to work at a garment factory and not paid.

After learning that Th. was tricked and sold to China, his grandfather had to transfer 28 million VND to the Chinese owner in the hope of redeeming his grandson.

However, Th. was not allowed to return to Vietnam and had to stay in China and was forced to be a surrogate mother. After 5 months of pregnancy, Th. had an abortion. She continued to be "confined" in an apartment building in Guangzhou, China, waiting for the next embryo transfer.

In July 2020, taking advantage of lax surveillance, Th. went out to the balcony to call for help and was informed by people nearby that the Chinese police came to the rescue.

Another victim is Ms. A. (born in 1990, in Thai Nguyen). In December 2019, because she wanted to find a job, she contacted Chuong, only to be tricked into going to China and forced to be a surrogate mother.

After 7 months in China, taking advantage of the subjects' negligence, Ms. A. called for help and was also called by the people to report to the Chinese police for rescue. In September 2020, she was handed over to the Vietnamese side.

The investigation agency clarified that in addition to organizing surrogacy, Chuong also bought and sold human body parts. In 2020, Mr. Phan Van N. suffered from kidney failure and had to undergo dialysis. He wanted a kidney transplant, so he contacted Chuong to discuss the matter.

The chapter took Mr. N's information and posted it on the Facebook page: "Support for kidney transplant donation" with the content "patient needs to find a kidney donor, blood type O, A, B...".

During the difficult economic conditions, reading the above information, Ms. H. (in Hoa Binh) contacted Chuong to "donate a kidney". Seeing that the blood type test results of Ms. H. and Mr. N. were compatible, defendant Chuong contacted Mr. N. to inform that he had found someone to sell a kidney for 580 million VND.

After the kidney transplant was successful, Mr. N. transferred the entire amount to Chuong. In this case, Ms. H. received 350 million VND.

For the above-mentioned acts, on August 10, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced Cao Xuan Chuong to 27 years in prison for the crimes of Human Trafficking, Human Trafficking under 16 years old and Human Organ Trafficking. The panel also sentenced Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh to 23 years in prison for Human Trafficking and Human Trafficking under 16 years old.

Newborn baby boy was bought and sold

In another development, on June 12, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced defendant Pham Thi Thu Uyen (born 1997, in Lao Cai): 13 years in prison for the crime of Trafficking in persons under 16 years old. For the same crime, the panel sentenced Do Thi Nhu Trang (born 1993): 16 years; Le Dien Dung (born 1993, in Bac Kan): 10 years, 6 months in prison; Nguyen Phuong Thao (born 2001, Nghe An): 3 years in prison.

According to the accusation, from 7-12/2021, Uyen, Dung and Trang, along with Nguyen Phuong Thao (Trang's maid), used the social network Facebook to make friends, get to know each other, and transact to buy children from pregnant women and women who had just given birth, then sell them for profit.

Around December 2021, Ms. U. (born in 1993, in Vinh Phuc) was pregnant, but due to difficult circumstances, the mother determined that she was unable to raise the child, so she planned to give the child up for adoption.

Ms. U. posted on the Facebook group: “The Association for Giving and Adopting Children in 3 Regions” with the purpose of seeing if there were any families who were infertile and sincerely wanted to adopt a child. When Ms. U. posted, defendant Uyen texted the mother to ask for the child and Ms. U. agreed.

On December 29, 2021, Ms. U. saw signs of labor so she texted Uyen. After Ms. U. gave birth to a baby boy, Uyen and her lover, defendant Dung, went to Ms. U.'s house to receive the baby. Before leaving, the defendant gave the mother 5 million VND in post-natal care.

The couple took the baby away and then sold it to defendant Thu Trang for 25 million VND. The poor baby boy was then sold by Trang to a person named Hoang Thi T. for 60 million VND.