A poor mother's heartbreaking message to her child accused of human trafficking
“Try to reform yourself so you can return home soon and start a new life, taking care of yourself. I am sick and don’t know what the future holds,” were the words of advice from a mother whose son was convicted of human trafficking in the hallway of the courtroom.
From victim to trafficker into a scam company
The woman is the mother of defendant Le Van Ha (26 years old), residing in Nhan Hoa commune (Nghe An), who was recently tried by the People's Court of Nghe An province for the crime of Human trafficking. The accomplice in this case is Bui Thi Thao (31 years old, from Nghe An, residing in Ho Chi Minh City), but because Thao is raising a young child, she requested to be tried in absentia.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi B. (59 years old) and her husband have 2 children, Ha is the youngest. She dropped out of school after 7th grade, so Ha went out early and often hung around with her friends. Fearing that her child would be spoiled, she advised her many times to apply for a job in a company to stabilize her life. However, her child thought that it was a restrictive job, with a salary that was just enough to get by. Ha wanted to earn a lot of money and have a comfortable job. But for someone without a degree like Ha, that was difficult.
From the desire to earn money with easy work and high salary, Le Van Ha agreed to go abroad to work after being contacted by Bui Thi Thao. Before that, during the time Thao went to Dubai to open a hair salon, she met a Chinese man named A Phan (identity unknown). When A Phan asked her to find someone to take her to Thailand to work with a salary of 800 USD/month, Thao contacted Ha. At that time, because she had no job, Ha agreed to go and said she wanted to go first to see what the work was like, then find someone to take her.
Some time later, Ha was sent to Myanmar (not Thailand as promised) and knew what to do.scam jobonline. Because she wanted to make money, Ha volunteered to stay and do the scamming job. This guy also called Thao to inform her that the job abroad was a scam. However, Ha and Thao still colluded to find someone to sell to the Chinese boss.
The investigation agency determined that from April to May 2023, Ha and Thao tricked 5 people into going to Myanmar to hand them over to a Chinese subject. When the workers arrived there, the Chinese boss declared, "Come here to scam Vietnamese people, monthly salary is 600 USD if you do well, work enough days to get more money, 8-month work contract." The Chinese boss forced the workers to sign the contract and confiscated their passports.
The workers were then provided with phones and computers and forced to make fraudulent phone calls to Vietnamese people by calling for investment in the “football score-fixing” website. They were forced to work 12 to 17 hours a day, and if they did not meet their targets, they had to work overtime and were fined. During their work, they were constantly monitored and supervised, and if they did not work, they would be beaten.
Due to being forced to work with a large workload and being constantly monitored by management, some people escaped, swam to Thailand and were rescued by the Blue Dragon Children's Organization and brought home. However, some victims were forced to call their families for help and send money to redeem them.
On March 30, 2025, the victims filed a complaint with the Nghe An Provincial Police Investigation Agency. Four days later, Le Van Ha and Bui Thi Thao turned themselves in to the police. In this case, Ha benefited 28 million VND, while Thao benefited 4 million VND.
A mother's advice to her errant child
At the first instance trial, the defendant Ha confessed and admitted to the crime of Human Trafficking as charged in the indictment. Ha stated that initially, he agreed to go abroad because he wanted to find a well-paying job to take care of his family and children. After being taken to Myanmar, he knew he had to make fraudulent phone calls, but because of greed, he turned around and scammed other victims.
Le Van Ha confessed that he had spent all the money he earned from selling Vietnamese people to the Chinese boss. He said he felt remorseful for his crime and asked for leniency from the law.
On the day of the trial, the victims did not attend the court. Only a few relatives of the defendant were present in the courtroom. When the court deliberated, the defendant’s mother cried continuously. She told her son through tears: “Try to reform yourself so you can return to start a new life soon. Life is unpredictable, I don’t know what the future holds, my son…” After saying that, she sobbed and wiped her tears with her thin hands.
Then she told her son about her family’s situation, about her father who was sick all the time, because he was worried about his son who had made a mistake. “Dad can’t come today, but he sent a message telling you to try to reform. This month, I can only see you here, because I don’t have money to visit you in prison or send you to the detention center anymore,” she told her son about the family’s difficult situation.
During that brief meeting, she also told him that her daughter-in-law (Ha's wife) had taken her child and left after Ha was arrested. The child was currently being sent to her parents' house so that her mother could work to earn a living. Hearing her mother mention her wife and child, Ha fell silent, her face downcast, her hands clasped tightly together. As a husband and father, Ha had now failed to fulfill those duties by falling into legal trouble and having to accept the court's verdict.
After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced defendant Le Van Ha to 12 years in prison and defendant Bui Thi Thao to 5 years in prison for human trafficking.
Hearing the verdict, she could only cry and leave. “The child is foolish, the mother bears it.” Although she knew that her son would have to pay the price for his illegal actions, the 12-year prison sentence still made her heart ache when she thought about the day when mother and son would reunite.
