The escape of a girl who was tricked and sold to China by her mother-in-law

Phan Giang• September 27, 2018 08:50

(Baonghean.vn) - After being tricked and sold by her mother-in-law for more than a year, with the help of the authorities, LTH returned to her hometown and denounced the criminal group.

Mother-in-law colluded to trick and sell daughter-in-law

Around October 2016, Vi Thi Tuyet and Vi Van Tuong went to Xet village (Chau Ly commune - Quy Hop) to meet Vi Thi Que and asked her to find young girls to sell in China. If they found a beautiful girl, they would be sold for 100 million VND, if they were ugly, they would be sold for 70 million VND.

Seeing the large sum of money, Mrs. Que immediately thought of her daughter-in-law named H. Her father had cancer and needed money for medical treatment...

Mrs. Tuyet told her daughter-in-law that selling groceries in China would pay well, 6 million Vietnamese Dong per month. Seeing this, Ms. H. agreed to the plan to go abroad to earn more money.

About 10 days later, Ms. Tuyet's son went to Quy Hop to pick up H. and took her to Hanoi, Mong Cai (Quang Ninh) and then to China.

The three defendants Que and Tuong Tuyet (from left to right) at the trial. Photo: Phan Giang

Across the border, H. discovered that she had been tricked into marrying a man. If she refused to marry a man in the neighboring country, she would be sold into prostitution.

Sau (Vi Van Tuong's younger sister) sold H to a Chinese man for 95,000 yuan (equivalent to nearly 300 million Vietnamese Dong).

After that, Sau sent back to Vietnam 130 million VND, of which Tuyet paid H.'s mother-in-law 80 million VND, Tuong 10 million VND and Tuyet kept the rest.

Escape from foreign land

After being sold to a poor man in a remote rural area of Hebei Province, China, the girl from Quy Hop was kept under strict house arrest, living in humiliation and bitterness due to language and cultural differences and having to marry a stranger.

Meeting mother after 1 year of being sold to a foreign country. Photo: Phan Giang

The mountain girl tried every way to refuse her husband, even ran away from hell, but she was locked in the house and threatened with beatings. Fearing that if she continued like this, she might die in a foreign land without a chance to return home, H changed and planned to escape from her husband's house.

In the following days, the mountain girl was obedient, listened to her husband, and got used to the language and lifestyle, so she was no longer locked up in the house. Every day, she followed her husband's family to work on the farm, and at night she also did housework, working hard and silently...

At first, her husband did not let her go anywhere because he was afraid she would run away. But later, her husband's family trusted her, did not control her too much and bought her a phone. From this phone, she was able to contact her family... "I was lucky to have a kind husband's family, and was not beaten. But there were many terrible things. Near where I lived, many women were sold to be the common wives of 3-4 brothers in one family, and were often beaten. Thinking back now, I am still scared. I was lucky that I did not have children with my husband in China. If I had children and wanted to return home, my husband's family would have kept the children as collateral," the girl from Quy Hop recalled those miserable days.

After more than a year of being sold to China, H. thought of escaping at all costs. She used her phone to contact and ask for help from Vietnamese authorities and the Blue Dragon Children's Organization. She was then successfully rescued by the authorities and returned to Vietnam safely.

Authorities rescued and returned H to his family. Photo: Phan Giang

The price to pay for human trafficking

On March 10, 2018, H. filed a complaint with the Nghe An police investigation agency. Vi Thi Tuyet, Vi Thi Que and Vi Van Tuong were arrested and prosecuted.

On September 26, in Chau Ly commune (Quy Hop), Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a mobile court to try the first instance criminal case against Vi Thi Tuyet, Vi Thi Que and Vi Van Tuong for the crime of "Human trafficking".

During the trial, H. hoped that the panel of judges would reduce the sentence for her mother-in-law Vi Thi Que and severely punish Tuyet and Tuong for the crimes they had committed.

Based on the results of the investigation, questioning, and public debate at the trial, the panel of judges determined that the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province prosecuted the defendants Vi Thi Tuyet, Vi Thi Que, and Vi Van Tuong for the crime of "Human trafficking". The panel of judges sentenced Vi Thi Tuyet to 6 years in prison, Vi Thi Que to 5 years in prison, and Vi Van Tuong to 5 years in prison for the crime of "Human trafficking" and ordered the defendants to pay civil compensation to the victims a total of 75.9 million VND.