The tearful journey of a poor mother in Nghe An to find her 13-year-old daughter

More than 2 years looking for a child

Five years have passed, but Ms. Luu Thi An (born in 1969), residing in Thach Giam commune, Tuong Duong district, still clearly remembers the days of wandering everywhere to find her "missing" daughter.

She said that it was a day in mid-August 2014, after returning from herding cows, she could not find her youngest daughter, Lo Thi Q. (born 2002). “At first, I thought my daughter had not returned from school. However, when it was already dark and I still did not see her, I became worried. Only then did I run to ask the neighbors and they told me that that afternoon they saw my daughter with two strange women,” she recalled.

Ms. Luu Thi An recounts her journey to find her daughter. Photo: Tran Vu

Upon hearing this detail, Mrs. An panicked when she thought of a bad situation happening to her daughter. Because, in this locality, there had been a number of women being sold to China before. Therefore, she could not rule out the possibility that her daughter had been tricked and sold by a bad person.

Immediately after that, Mrs. An informed the local authorities and started the journey to find her child. However, because she did not have any information, her search for her child was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

This mother could only go to the border gates near China, holding a picture of her child to ask. For 3 months she searched for her child, but the information she got was only a big zero. When the 30 million VND she brought with her was gone, she had to return home, waiting for news of her child.

Some time later, this mother accidentally learned about her child when another victim who was trafficked at the same time as Q. contacted her family. From that information, she gradually searched for a way to contact her child from China. Hearing her child cry and tell her story over the phone made her heart burn. However, because of the geographical distance, she could only encourage her child to calm down, then guide her on how to find a way home.

By 2016, after quietly saving money and asking for help from others, Lo Thi Q. returned to Vietnam to reunite with her family. Seeing her flesh and blood child again after a long time of "disappearance" made Mrs. An cry with joy. She said: "Seeing my child again is more precious to me than gold."

Married at the age of 13

After the reunion, the girl recounted the humiliating months. According to the victim, around mid-August 2014, when she was in 7th grade, she accidentally met Ngan Thi Dua (born 1988), residing in Nga My commune, Tuong Duong district, at the house of an acquaintance.

The two defendants Ngan Thi Dua and Vi Thi Hoai Thanh at the trial. Photo: Tran Vu

After knowing that Q. and his friend were looking for jobs, Dua immediately asked them if they wanted to go to China to earn money. Dua said that they would go there to work for a company or babysit for someone else, with a monthly salary of 8 to 10 million VND. Q. and his friend, born in 1999, agreed.

After that, Dua called Vi Thi Hoai Thanh (born in 1980) to discuss sending people to the other side of the border. Thanh told Dua: "Going to China is just to get married, not to do any business." Dua talked to Q. about going to China to get married and would receive 80 million VND, so she agreed. Dua and Thanh then discussed specifically the method and time to send the two children to the foreign country.

At around 3pm that day, Dua took a bus to Vinh city and handed the two children over to Thanh. The next morning, Thanh took the two children across the border to China.

In a foreign country, Thanh asked a Chinese man to find a buyer. Four days later, this man sold the two children and gave Thanh 80,000 yuan (equivalent to 240 million VND). On the way back, Thanh was confiscated by Chinese police for all the money he had paid for the sale of the two children. Five months later, Thanh was released back to Vietnam. Back home, Thanh went to Laos to work, so when Dua came to demand the 20 million VND as promised, Thanh's mother borrowed 13 million VND to give to Dua.

The two suspects, Ngan Thi Dua and Vi Thi Hoai Thanh, were later prosecuted for “Buying and selling children”. The trial of the two defendants took place on a day at the end of September. At court, the two defendants admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment and as told by the victim.

At the trial, the judge spoke sternly, saying that the defendants committed a serious crime by selling children abroad. What was even more heartbreaking was that the children had to be married when they were still young, some of them had not yet reached puberty. For the crime of “Trafficking in children”, the court sentenced Ngan Thi Dua and Vi Thi Hoai Thanh to 12 years in prison each. The defendants were ordered to jointly compensate the victim’s family 80 million VND.

The trial ended in the late afternoon. Mrs. An hurriedly took her daughter home to catch the bus back to Xiangyang. After returning from China, she always kept a close watch on her daughter. Because this mother did not want her daughter to be tricked and sold by bad people again.