The tearful return of a woman who was tricked and trafficked to China

(Baonghean.vn) - After 7 years of being tricked and sold to be the wife of an older man in China, Ms. Loi returned home to find her house gone and her 4 children out of contact.

On December 10, the dilapidated house of Mr. Le Dinh Dan (54 years old, Duc Son commune, Anh Son) was crowded with neighbors and relatives coming to ask questions. A day before, Mr. Dan's younger sister - Ms. Le Thi Loi (38 years old), was brought back to her hometown by her benefactor after being ransomed from a police station in China.

Returning to her hometown after 7 years of missing, Loi's mother sold her old house before she passed away 3 years ago, and she had to stay at her eldest brother's house. "Her parents are gone. She has no house left, so she will probably stay at my house forever" - said Ms. Dinh Thi Binh (53 years old), Loi's eldest sister-in-law.

Ms. Loi returned after 7 years of missing. Photo: Tien Hung

Having been a daughter-in-law here for more than 30 years, Mrs. Binh said that Loi was originally a beautiful young woman. However, when she reached the age of love, experiencing an emotional shock, Loi gradually showed unusual signs, not as agile as others. At the age of 27, Loi became pregnant. No matter how much she asked, no one knew who the mother of the fetus was. When the baby girl was born, Loi often had to take her to Anh Son town to work for hire to make a living.

“Every day, the mother and daughter hang around the town market. They do whatever they are hired to do, whether it’s cleaning the house or washing dishes. They accept whatever they are given, enough for the two of them to get by,” said Mrs. Binh.

One day in late 2010, while working as a housekeeper for a family in Anh Son town, Loi was invited by a woman named Thanh to visit China. Without a second thought, Loi immediately agreed. Even though the homeowner had previously warned her that she was “not allowed to go anywhere just because anyone invited her” because she knew about her illness.

“They put my mother and I on the bus. They also went with Thanh’s younger brother, Son, and her biological mother. They were both from this town, so they had known each other before,” Loi tried to recall the events of his last day in his hometown, before being tricked and sold to China.

Ms. Loi next to the man who ransomed her from the police station. Photo: Tien Hung

According to Ms. Loi, after 2 days of traveling, the 5 of them finally made it to China. “This Ms. Thanh married a Chinese man, so I was taken to their house to eat and drink. After a few days there, they separated me and my mother,” Ms. Loi said.

Since that day, the mother and daughter have never seen each other again. She was then sold to a Chinese man in his 50s who had not yet found a wife. As for her daughter, who was only 5 years old at the time, no one knows where she was taken.

“He is very old, his name is A An, living with his mother who is over 90 years old” - Loi said about her husband. She said that during this time, she was like a “sex slave”. All day long, she just stayed at home, with the sole task of giving birth.

Because she doesn’t communicate much with the outside world, Ms. Loi’s Chinese is only a few common sentences, not even enough for the couple to know everything about each other. She doesn’t know what her husband does for a living, only that he often visits the houses of the people around to examine patients. “I think he’s a doctor or a nurse in the neighborhood,” Loi said. She also doesn’t know the exact address of her husband’s family.

Mr. Hung said that there are still many Vietnamese women in similar situations to Ms. Loi in China. Photo: Tien Hung

Being a wife in that house for 7 years, having 3 more children with A An, however, every time she was allowed to leave the house to go shopping, Loi always had someone accompany her for fear that she would run away. A few months ago, local authorities organized a series of raids on illegal residents, and Loi was one of those arrested for not having papers. She was then transferred to a police station near Tan Thanh Border Gate for detention.

On December 6, Nguyen Van Hung (40 years old, from Vinh Tuong commune, Vinh Phuc district) came to this border gate to get his visa stamped when he heard the story of Vietnamese women being detained. Hung is a construction worker who has worked in China for more than 24 years. Every half month, he has to go to the border gate to renew his visa.

“An acquaintance of mine there said that many Vietnamese women were being held at the police station, so he asked me to go in and see if they were fellow countrymen. If so, he would ask them to contact their relatives to come and redeem them,” Hung said.

According to Mr. Hung, in the station at that time, in addition to Ms. Loi, there were also two women from Hung Yen province. One of the two was pregnant and about to give birth.

“It costs 1,800 yuan to redeem one person, equivalent to more than 6 million VND. At that time, I only had 2,000 yuan on me, so it wasn’t enough to redeem all three of them, only Loi. When I left the cell, the two remaining women cried and begged, which made me unable to control myself. I tried to take pictures of them and post them on social media so that their relatives could know and redeem them, but the Chinese police didn’t allow it. Meanwhile, the time to ask questions was only a few minutes, not enough time to ask for a specific address,” Hung said.

Ms. Loi is currently staying at her eldest brother's house. Photo: Tien Hung

After leaving prison, Hung took a photo of Loi and her address and posted it on Facebook to help her find her relatives. After explaining her situation to the authorities at Tan Thanh Border Gate, Hung took Loi to his home in Vinh Phuc to take care of her. A few days later, he received a phone call from Loi’s brother. After a phone call, he agreed to “accompany” the woman to her hometown in Nghe An.

Mr. Hung said that when he met Ms. Loi in the cell, she was only wearing one set of clothes that already smelled bad. The police said that she had been detained there for two and a half months. In her bag at that time, there were only two pieces of bread and a picture of three children that Ms. Loi said were her and A An's children.

“On the back of the photo is the name of the photo studio. I know this studio, it is located in the center of Dai Tan district (Guangxi province). I also rented a house nearby” - Mr. Hung said and commented that A An’s family might live around this area.

According to Mr. Hung, the ransom and the cost to bring Ms. Loi back cost 12 million VND, but when the family wanted to return her, he only accepted 2 million VND because he thought "it was just a charity". After decades of working in China, Mr. Hung said that there are many Vietnamese women in the same situation as Loi. Many cases were even injected with amnesia drugs, losing their lucidity.

“In the very poor rural areas of China, if they don’t have a lot of money, they can’t get a wife. That’s why there are Vietnamese women who are sold into families where they have to be wives for many people,” said Mr. Hung.

“After Loi went missing, the whole family searched everywhere. Whenever they heard any news that might be related, the family members traveled hundreds of kilometers to look for him, but they still couldn’t find him. Luckily, we met Hung, he is truly a benefactor,” Loi’s sister-in-law sobbed.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuan - Chairman of Duc Son Commune People's Committee said that on December 9, Mr. Hung also brought Ms. Loi and her family to the Commune People's Committee to report the whole incident.

Meanwhile, regarding Ms. Loi's being tricked into being sold to China, authorities said they will clarify the case after receiving a complaint from the family.

Tien Hung