Meet the victims rescued after many years of being sold as wives in a foreign land

Married at 14

One day in late December, in a small room of Nghe An Police headquarters, Cut Thi X. (15 years old) hugged her father and cried in the moment of reunion. Receiving information from the police that the girl had been rescued, that same night, X.'s father, Cut Pho Bua, hurried from Bao Nam commune (Ky Son district) to National Highway 7 to catch a late bus to Vinh city to see his daughter. "I thought I had really lost her," the Khmu man with a haggard face said, wiping away tears.

The moment of reunion of Mr. Bua and his son. Photo: Tien Hung

Mr. Bua and his wife have 4 children, X. is the youngest daughter. Like many other Khmu families in the village, Mr. Bua's family is poor. Therefore, as soon as his children learned to read and write, they had to leave their jobs and follow their parents to the fields to earn a living. Knowing that Mr. Bua's family had many daughters and was in difficulty, Cut Van Ut (32 years old, Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong district) approached them. Ut is one of the people in a human trafficking ring, specializing in hunting young women in the highlands of Nghe An tosold to ChinaFor each successful transaction, Ut received 5 million VND from the network.

After a period of getting to know each other, Ut gradually gained the trust of Mr. Bua's family. In April 2019, Ut proposed to send X. to the South to do "light work with high salary" to help the family escape poverty. Therefore, X.'s family did not think twice and immediately "handed over the eggs to the evil". Since then, both Ut and X. have lost contact with Mr. Bua's family. Ut then took the Khmu girl across the border to China and handed her over to the people in the network. Xeo was sold to a Chinese man when she was not yet 14 years old, for 240 million VND. Mr. Bua said that, since that day, he has regretted and tormented himself every day.

When the victim was rescued, Cut Van Ut was arrested. Photo: Tien Hung

“I have been waiting for this day for almost 2 years. Life there is truly cruel, like “hell on earth”. I cry every day, hoping to return home and reunite with my family,” X. said, adding that because she was sold into marriage at such a young age, she did not know anyone in a foreign country, and did not know Chinese, so every time she disobeyed, her husband’s family would torture her.

“Because I don’t know the language, my husband and his family members told me to do this and that without understanding. Every time that happened, I was beaten,” X. cried.

X. said that since being tricked and sold, she has always tried to contact her family. However, it was not until July 2020 that she was able to use her phone. On the rare occasion she was able to access the phone to call home, her husband discovered her. After torturing her enough, he confiscated her phone and forbade her from calling home. But thanks to that short phone call, X.'s family in her hometown reported it to the police. After 5 months of verification,Blue Dragon Children's Protection Organizationjust got the address to rescue her and bring her back to reunite with her family. As soon as X. was reunited with her family, Cut Van Ut - the person who tricked and sold her to China - was also urgently arrested by the investigation agency for the crime of Child Trafficking.

X. reported to the criminal police about the person who sold her. Photo: Tien Hung

At the same time as X., the Criminal Police Department and the Blue Dragon Organization also rescued another case, Luong Thi B. (Huu Khuong Commune, Tuong Duong) who was sold in 2015 when she was only 20 years old. According to B.'s statement, lying there with her were two other young girls in the village who were tricked and sold. These two people are still "missing", no one knows if they are alive or dead. The Criminal Police Department is continuing to investigate, clarify and verify this network.

Tears in a foreign land

We met Tran Thi H. (33 years old, Giai Xuan commune, Tan Ky district), when she was busy taking her son who was not yet 2 years old to work in the field. H. is also one of the victims of human trafficking who was rescued by the Blue Dragon Organization more than a month ago. H. said that she is the second child in a family of 3 siblings. Because life was too difficult, her mother left to follow another man. Her father was a "single father" until he fell ill and died early, leaving only 3 siblings to care for and love each other.

In the summer of 2001, when H. was just 14 years old, she took a bus to Dien Chau town to find a job with the hope of helping her brother. Here, she rented a room and met a woman named Thuy. Knowing that H. intended to find a job, Thuy sweetly coaxed her to go to China to "work to change her life". The young girl believed the woman's words without knowing that it was all a trap. In China, at first, H. followed Thuy to work for about 2 months and was sold to be the wife of a man in Guangdong, China for 20,000 yuan.

The day of reunion after nearly 20 years of being tricked and sold to China of Ms. H.. Photo: Tien Hung

H. said that for nearly 20 years, she has always been tormented, missing her homeland, but has no way to contact her family. During her years as a wife in a foreign land, H. was often abused by her husband. Even though she gave birth to four children. “My husband works in construction so he is always away, rarely coming home. Every time he comes back, if he is not satisfied with something, he blames everything on his wife. At my husband's house, I have to work from morning to night. The youngest child is still young, so when I was rescued, I took him with me but accepted losing three children there,” H. said.

Recently, on a rare occasion when Ms. H. was allowed to leave the house, she was fortunate to meet a fellow Nghe An native. After receiving H.’s call for help, he took her photo and the information she provided to post on social media. At home, Ms. H.’s brother recognized his sister even though they had been apart for 20 years. He then filed a complaint with the authorities.

According to the report of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, the situation of human trafficking crimes has always been complicated, especially the situation of human trafficking to China in mountainous districts in Nghe An province. From 2012 to 2020, investigation agencies at all levels investigated and prosecuted 136 cases and 258 defendants for human trafficking and child trafficking.

The main method of human trafficking is to take advantage of acquaintances or through intermediaries to approach victims, using seductive words, promising to find them jobs with high salaries; openly bargaining, inviting victims to marry abroad to have a more leisurely life and have some money to help their families, so some victims believe and voluntarily follow... Recently, human traffickers have also used social networks (zalo, facebook...) to find ways to attract and deceive victims to sell. The area of ​​operation is rural and mountainous areas, where the educational level is low, people are gullible, the economy is difficult, many people are unemployed... so they are easily lured, lured, and deceived. Human trafficking is mainly concentrated in some mountainous districts such as Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Quy Hop, Quy Chau, Que Phong, Ky Son.