Received money to take people to England and then abandoned them in Türkiye, sentenced to 2 years in prison

(Baonghean.vn)- Four people paid Yen more than 1.1 billion VND to go to England and Germany to work. When the four people flew to Cyprus, they were abandoned.

On the afternoon of December 29, 2017, the People's Court of Nghe An province continued to open a criminal trial, the first instance trial of defendant Ho Thi Yen (37 years old, residing in Hung Binh ward, Vinh city, Nghe An) prosecuted for the crime of organizing others to illegally flee abroad.

According to the case file, around 2014 and 2015, although Yen did not have the function of sending people to work abroad, she announced and lured gullible people to work in the UK. People who came to Yen's house saw a sign in front of the house recruiting people to work abroad, so they trusted her.

In 2014, four people in Nghe An (including Mr. Luan, Mr. Hoe, Mr. Tu, Mr. Hai) paid Yen more than 1.1 billion VND to go to England and Germany to work. Of which, Mr. Hoe (in Hung Nguyen district, Yen's aunt and uncle) paid Yen 430 million VND. Mr. Luan's family (in Hung Nguyen district) borrowed from the bank to pay Yen 540 million VND.

In 2015, Yen contacted some people to take Hoe and Tuan to England and Tu and Hai to Germany. However, when the four people flew to Cyprus (Türkiye), they were abandoned. Hoe, Tu and Hai had to return home. Luan was taken to the forest and forced to work in agriculture and construction, but without full legal documents, he had no salary. Luan had to ask to stay and cook for his wife and children in Bac Giang to survive. Luan's brother had to borrow 13 million VND to send to Luan.

Luan’s family had to send 40 million VND twice for him to buy a ticket back to Vietnam. After two years of miserable life in Cyprus, on November 19, 2017, Luan finally returned home to Hung Thang commune.

At the trial, Yen admitted that he could only bring people from Vietnam to Cyprus (Türkiye) with a labor contract. Then, he would bring people from Türkiye to Germany by car or train, then to France and then to England illegally, but he could not bring them there.

At the end of the trial, the first instance panel sentenced Yen to 2 years in prison for organizing others to flee abroad and returning the money to those people.

After the court announced the verdict, Mr. Hoe and Mr. Luan said that the panel of judges' verdict was too light.

Khanh An