Identifying child trafficking tricks in mountainous areas

Breaking many lines, rescuing victims

Recently, the authorities in the province have dismantled many networks and arrested many subjects involved in child trafficking in mountainous areas.

Typically, Tuong Duong District Police have just successfully broken a case, arrested Cut Thi Mui (born 1991), residing in Ngoc Lam Commune, Thanh Chuong District for child trafficking, and successfully rescued 3 victims.

According to the investigation results, Mui used to live in Tuong Duong district, so she often returned to her hometown to lure and entice girls to go abroad to work, but in reality, she was a fraud and trafficker. After a period of monitoring, on July 8, 2024, Tuong Duong district police arrested Cut Thi Mui and rescued the victim CTK (born 2002), residing in Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district.

The authorities clarified: In 2014, while K. was at Vi Thi X.'s house (Cut Thi Mui's mother) in Ngoc Lam commune, Thanh Chuong district, Mui (who was abroad at the time) contacted him by phone and promised to bring K. over to take care of Mui's child; at the same time, Mui would find a job for K.

However, in reality, Mui sold K. to a foreign man to be his wife for 180 million VND. Expanding the case, the police rescued two more victims: XTC residing in Yen Hoa commune and LTM residing in Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district.

Previously, Tuong Duong District Police also arrested 3 subjects for the act of "Trafficking in persons under 16 years old", successfully rescuing 3 victims before they were sold abroad. Through professional activities, Luong Minh Commune Police discovered that in this commune there were a number of subjects who had signs of collusion with people from outside the area to lure and entice girls to work abroad to commit trafficking, so they established a special project to fight.

At the end of April 2024, the Special Investigation Committee sent a working group to Cao Bang province to coordinate with the Border Guard force to rescue three girls, LTH (born 2012), CTT (born 2012) and LTN (born 2007), all residing in Cham Puong village, Luong Minh commune.

Based on the victims' statements, on May 8, 2024, Tuong Duong District Police arrested Xeo Thi Thanh (born in 1994), residing in the same commune as the victims. Expanding the investigation, on May 9, 2024, the police continued to arrest two subjects: Luong Thi Bien and Xeo Van Hien, both residing in Huoi Tho village, Huu Kiem commune, Ky Son district. At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed that they had colluded with a Vietnamese subject abroad to sell the girls for a profit of 165 million VND.

According to the authorities, most of the victims of human trafficking are children from families with difficult circumstances, limited legal awareness, and high demand for jobs. Taking advantage of this, local people have connected with some people from outside the area, using the trick of luring them to do light work with high salaries, marrying foreigners... to deceive and attract victims, including relatives and acquaintances, to be sold.

Typically, on the evening of July 1, 2023, the authorities caught Ven Thi Hoai (born 2003), residing in Khe Nap village, Bao Nam commune, Ky Son district, taking two nieces, VT Kh. (born 2009), MT Nh. (born 2008), residing in the same village, on a bus to the northern provinces, to prepare to go to China. The heartbreaking thing is that Kh. is Hoai's biological sister.

Hoai lied to his parents that he was taking his younger sister and a neighbor from the same village to work in Bac Giang, but in fact, Hoai had previously colluded with his friend Cut Thi Ngoc, residing in Nam Nhoong, Que Phong district (whose biological mother is in China) to sell the two sisters for 60 million VND in wages and 80,000 Yuan (equivalent to 240 million VND).

Speaking at a live dialogue program on the prevention and combat of human trafficking, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Van Hung - Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) said: "Currently, human trafficking crimes have shifted from direct to using social networks and applying high technology to criminal activities."

Some criminals have embellished or created virtual information on social networks about a wealthy, well-off life to easily approach, get acquainted, make children trust and admire... then deceive and entice them to carry out acts of grooming, buying and selling, sexually abusing and exploiting the labor of minors.

The subjects they target are often teenage girls in remote areas, with psychological and physiological changes, who like to be beautiful, want to have a job, earn money to serve their personal needs but have limited legal awareness and social information. In some cases, the girls themselves have hidden from their families, agreeing to follow the invitation of "easy work, high salary" from bad guys.

Typically, on the afternoon of March 8, 2024, Ms. Vi Thi Th., residing in Dong Moi village, Dong Van commune (Que Phong), received news that her niece, who is in 8th grade, and another girl friend left home to go to Bac Ninh province to work at a restaurant with a "high salary". Suspecting that the two children were lured by bad guys, Ms. Th. asked an acquaintance to call the bus companies running the Que Phong (Nghe An) - Bac Ninh route to look for them. Luckily, a bus company informed that there were 2 young children who were students on the bus but were not accompanied by an adult. Before that, these 2 children had received a phone call from a man who booked 2 bus tickets to Que Vo (Bac Ninh).

After confirming, Ms. Th.’s acquaintance asked the bus company to keep the girls so that their family could pick them up. On the afternoon of March 9, their family came to pick up the two girls and bring them home safely.

Need for synchronous participation

The Western Nghe An region includes 11 districts and towns, of which 5 are highland districts where ethnic minorities live mainly. The economic life and awareness of people in this area are still low, the demand for jobs is high, while the local livelihood is difficult, making women and girls vulnerable to human trafficking.

Therefore, Party committees, authorities and political systems at all levels have strengthened propaganda, dissemination and education on laws on preventing and combating human trafficking in many forms suitable to local conditions and awareness of each subject, especially in key localities.

The authorities also regularly coordinate with international and non-governmental organizations in rescuing and receiving victims of human trafficking, organizing communication activities to prevent and combat human trafficking. In addition, they coordinate with neighboring provinces of Laos to sign memoranda of understanding on cooperation in preventing and combating crimes on the border, including human trafficking crimes.

However, human trafficking crimes in general, and child trafficking in particular, often form tightly organized networks scattered in provinces across the country, even abroad, with sophisticated and cunning criminal methods of operation, and many tricks to deal with authorities, making it difficult to organize arrests and handle them.

Besides, according to Lieutenant Colonel Phan Van Hung - Deputy Head of the Drug and Crime Prevention Department (Nghe An Provincial Border Guard): In some areas, local Party committees and authorities have not really taken drastic action, and still believe that the fight against human trafficking is the responsibility of the authorities.

Therefore, the People's Committee of Nghe An province has issued many documents directing relevant departments and branches to strengthen communication activities; apply social networks to propagate methods and tricks of human trafficking crimes; include propaganda content on preventing and combating human trafficking in civic education programs, extracurricular education of all levels and fields of study, especially in remote areas, ethnic boarding schools, and vocational training facilities. At the same time, pay attention to the work of protecting and supporting victims, especially victims of minor age.

The functional forces (the core of which is the Police and Border Guard) have strengthened their work of grasping the situation, closely following the area, checking the networks, groups and individuals with signs related to human and child trafficking for strict management; proactively detecting human trafficking activities to establish special projects to fight.

In addition, regularly grasp information and situations in areas where human trafficking criminals often use as transit points to transport women and girls for sale, especially passenger bus routes from Nghe An to the northern border provinces (especially Mong Cai - Quang Ninh, Tan Thanh - Lang Son...) to detect and arrest human trafficking cases.

However, in addition to the drastic and effective fight against human trafficking in general and child trafficking in particular by the authorities, early and remote prevention work also needs to be given attention by localities, especially key areas, and identified as a key solution to prevent the above situation.