Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu works with the Repatriation Department of the British Home Office

The delegation included comrade Phan Duc Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Secretary of Vinh City Party Committee, Chairman of Vinh City People's Council; members of the Provincial Party Executive Committee: Nguyen Van De - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Nguyen Thi Hong Hoa - Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Commission; Tran Thi My Hanh - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Hoang Quoc Viet - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment; Tran Khanh Thuc - Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs; Bui Duy Son - Chief of Office of the National Assembly Delegation and Provincial People's Council; Vo Minh The - Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Internal Affairs Commission.

On the side of the UK Home Office, there were Mr. Tim Huelsman-Diamond - Deputy Director of the International Migration Unit (Asia); Alice Heales - Head of the East and Southeast Asia Cooperation Team; Sharan Ghuman - Senior Cultural Advisor and Head of the Engagement Team; Sean Barry - Senior Campaign Director on illegal migration.

In his opening remarks, Comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu expressed his honor to lead the delegation of Nghe An province to work with representatives of the Repatriation Department of the British Home Office, and at the same time, sent his sincere thanks to the Embassies of the two countries for coordinating to organize this meaningful meeting. He highly appreciated the efforts and support of the British Government in the field of preventing and combating human trafficking and supporting the repatriation of illegal migrants.

The representative of the UK Home Office, Mr. Tim Huelsman-Diamond, shared an overview of immigration policy, anti-human trafficking programs and repatriation procedures. Through the meeting, he hoped that the two sides would continue to cooperate openly, providing information in handling issues related to illegal migration and transnational organized crime.

During the meeting, representatives shared their concerns about the recent increase in the number of Vietnamese people entering the UK illegally by small boat, and stressed the importance of raising public awareness in Vietnam – particularly in Nghe An province – about the risks and consequences of illegal migration. The delegation also introduced the Commerence Commes campaign – a communications initiative to warn about the harms of illegal migration, as well as information about efforts to connect with the Vietnamese community in the UK to work together to prevent human trafficking.

Providing more information about the local situation, comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu said that although Nghe An province has had many positive changes in socio-economic development in recent years, it is still one of the provinces with difficulties, especially in mountainous, remote and isolated areas. Limitations in legal awareness, lack of jobs, surplus labor, especially among young people, are being exploited by bad elements to lure and deceive people into illegally leaving the country or becoming victims of human trafficking.

The Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee emphasized that in recent times, Nghe An province has taken many measures to prevent and combat illegal migration such as: Strengthening propaganda on the prevention and combat of human trafficking crimes; creating more domestic jobs by attracting many FDI projects; training to improve the capacity of officials; strengthening the legal framework for human trafficking crimes, enhancing the forecasting and statistics of returning victims of trafficking and ensuring facilities, equipment and social service systems for receiving and supporting victims of trafficking.

Nghe An province has also issued a Plan to implement the Program on preventing and combating human trafficking crimes for the period of 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030 in Nghe An province; at the same time, directing competent agencies to issue a Plan to implement the work of receiving and supporting victims of human trafficking for the period of 2021 - 2025, with a vision to 2030 in Nghe An province. To specify the regulations on supporting victims of human trafficking, Nghe An Provincial People's Council issued Resolution No. 04/2020/NQ-HDND dated July 22, 2020, stipulating a number of expenditure contents and expenditure levels for victim support work, and support regimes for victims of human trafficking crimes in Nghe An province.

The head of the Nghe An provincial delegation expressed his wish to continue receiving assistance and support from the British Government in general and the British Home Office in particular to more effectively and thoroughly implement the work of preventing and combating human trafficking as well as supporting and helping victims of trafficking to soon return to normal life.

In order to improve the effectiveness of preventing illegal migration and human trafficking crimes in the coming time, the two sides need to continue to exchange information regularly, create a common information area for sharing and exploitation, strengthen international cooperation to prevent in many countries; cooperate in vocational training, labor recruitment and policy measures to attract legal immigrant workers.