The tearful life of a mountain girl who was tricked, sold, and exploited for labor because she could not give birth.

Exploited labor because of not being able to give birth

One day in early July, the petite girl quietly came to the People's Court of Nghe An province to attend a special trial. Ms. Lang Thi Van (born in 1982) was the victim in the human trafficking case in which the two defendants were Sam Van Bien (born in 1984) and Lang Thi Xuan (born in 1983), both residing in Quang Phong commune, Que Phong district.

In the victim’s area, Ms. Van sat huddled. Although the mask covered most of her face, anxiety and fear were still evident in her eyes. Perhaps the trauma of being sold and tricked into living in a foreign land had haunted her.

Ms. Van at the trial of those who sold her. Photo: Tran Vu

After being encouraged, she calmly recounted her humiliating days. She said that she was the second child in a family of four siblings. Her family was poor, so she dropped out of school early and went to Vinh City to work. Around March 2014, she accidentally met a fellow countryman, Sam Van Bien. This person repeatedly invited her to work in China with a high salary, but she refused. In the following days, she continuously received phone calls from Bien, saying: If you go to China to work for three months and then return, you will receive 50 million VND. That attractive invitation made her agree.

Soon after, Bien picked her up and took her to Mong Cai (Quang Ninh province) and then illegally crossed the border into China. After going deep into the interior, at a bus station, Bien called Xuan to pick her up. When they met, Xuan learned that the girl Bien had brought over was his cousin. However, this woman was still determined to carry out her plan to sell people.

After that, Xuan took Van to his house and asked his father-in-law to sell her to a local man for 50,000 yuan (equivalent to 150 million VND). Xuan asked someone to give 40 million VND to Van's father, Sam Van Bien profited 40 million VND. The remaining amount after deducting expenses was taken by Xuan's father-in-law.

Since being sold as a commodity, Van’s life has been a series of painful days. She choked up: “When I first bought me, my husband loved and cared for me. But a few months later, when they saw that I was not pregnant, my family took me to the doctor. At that time, the doctor said I was sick, could not get pregnant and had to have my ovaries removed. To save my life, I had to agree to have my ovaries removed, which meant I could no longer be a mother.”

Since then, she has been treated badly by her husband and his family. “They forced me to work continuously to make up for the money they spent to buy me. Living in humiliation and having to work hard, I could only cry silently,” her eyes filled with tears as she recalled this story.

According to the victim, because of strict management, her husband's family assigned someone to take her to a glass factory every day. Her husband's family took all of her monthly salary, and she did not receive any money. They also forbade her from communicating with strangers...

Poor father sells cow to pay for travel expenses to find daughter

Living in humiliation, Ms. Van always had the intention of running away. On one hand, she secretly listened to her husband's family, on the other hand, she looked for ways to return to Vietnam. One day in early March 2017, taking advantage of the time when her husband's family was away, she escaped from home. "I asked for help from a taxi driver who lived nearby. He took me to the bus station so I could take a bus to the border gate. Luckily, that person knew my situation so he helped me and also instructed me on how to ask for money to return home. On the bus, I explained my situation to ask for money and some people supported me with a little money," Ms. Van said.

Once in Vietnam, she took a bus back to Nghe An. Although she had been away from home for 3 years, the image of her village and her family home was still there in her memory. When she was reunited with her family, she could only hug everyone in tears.

The victim's father told the story of selling the cow to find his son. Photo: Tran Vu

As for the father, he was both happy and sad to see his daughter after a long time apart. According to him, since his daughter went missing, they had organized a search but could not find her. He said: “Because my daughter was working for hire, she rarely contacted home, and when she went to China she did not tell anyone, so we did not know what happened. After a while, we heard the news and went to inquire and found out that she might have been sold to China. Feeling sorry for my daughter, I decided to sell the cow for 15 million VND to cover the travel expenses for the journey to find her.”

Having lived in the village all his life, his journey to find his son was extremely difficult. He had to ask someone to show him how to catch a bus to Quang Ninh. In a strange place, the miserable father searched for news of his son in vain. When he had almost run out of money, he had to take a bus home.

During that time, his family lived in sadness. He himself lost his appetite and sleep, losing weight because of worrying about his child. His wife was also sad and fell ill. Occasionally, whenever someone in the village returned from China, the grandparents would come to inquire about their daughter, but there was no news until the day Van escaped and returned home.

Sentence for those who sell their fellow countrymen

At the witness stand, the two defendants admitted their actions.human traffickingas charged in the indictment. Defendant Bien confessed that for money, he colluded with Xuan to find girls to sell to China. Bien confessed that he had spent all the money he got from selling people.

Facing his cousin, defendant Xuan also admitted his mistakes.

The two defendants Xuan and Bien in court. Photo: Tran Vu

According to the defendant’s testimony, at first Xuan did not know the victim was his cousin, because when he informed him, Bien only said “there was a girl” and did not give her name. But when he learned that the girl being sold was Van, the defendant still sold her because “he wanted her to have some money to return home.”

Considering that the actions of the two defendants were illegal and needed to be strictly punished, the panel sentenced defendant Sam Van Bien to 6 years in prison and defendant Lang Thi Xuan to 5 years in prison for the crime of human trafficking. In civil matters, the court ordered the two defendants to jointly compensate the victim 60 million VND.

Although the defendants have received legal sentences, the haunting memories of those humiliating days for Ms. Van cannot be forgotten.

According to the victim, after returning to her hometown for a while, in order to make a living, she went to Vinh City to rent a room and work as a delivery person. The job was unstable, and during this time, the COVID-19 pandemic made life even more difficult. But what hurt her the most was that she could no longer be a mother. That was also the reason why she felt inferior and did not dare to find a new love after the humiliation of being tricked and sold...

*The victim's name has been changed.