Efforts to prevent and combat human trafficking in Nghe An

Headsophisticated

It can be seen that the methods and tricks of human traffickers are mainly to take advantage of acquaintances or through intermediaries to approach victims, using seductive words, promising to find them jobs with high salaries...; the subjects often use social networks (Zalo, Facebook...) to find ways to lure and deceive victims into selling...

In particular, recently, there have been discovered tricks to lure victims to Laos and Cambodia to sell them to Chinese (or Chinese-origin) criminal gangs to use for cybercrime or online gambling.

In addition, the subjects used social networks or through acquaintances to lure and entice victims with promises of "easy work, high salary", "only work in the office, on the computer"... When the victims crossed the border into Laos and Cambodia, the subjects took them to prison in buildings in special zones, forcing the victims to carry out high-tech fraud to appropriate the property of Vietnamese people or to serve online gambling activities.

When a Vietnamese person is brought over, the Chinese subjects pay the Vietnamese subjects from 15 to 70 million VND. Some victims, after knowing that they were tricked and sold to Laos and Cambodia for criminal activities, did not follow the criminals' instructions and were beaten, imprisoned and forced to pay ransom to be released. Some people had to pay ransom to the criminals up to hundreds of millions of VND.

The criminals are usually women aged 25 to 40 (in most cases, the perpetrators are men, most of whom are accomplices), who collude with people in remote areas and border areas to form closed networks to lure, connect, and deceive women and children to sell to China for profit.

Nghe An subjects operating in Chinese criminal gangs in special zones in Laos and Cambodia used social networks or through acquaintances to entice and entice people aged 18 to 40 or some victims of human trafficking. After being controlled or bribed by Chinese subjects, they were assigned "quotas" to trick new victims into coming to them in order to pay salaries, bonuses or promote them to become group leaders or team leaders in fraud gangs. Therefore, the victims became the ones who bought and sold new victims...

According to the review of the functional sector, criminals often operate in rural and mountainous areas, where the level of education is low, the people are gullible, the economy is difficult, ... so they are easily lured, enticed, and deceived (mainly concentrated in some mountainous districts such as: Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Que Phong). The subjects that human traffickers target are mainly children and women with especially difficult family circumstances or "old-age" women; young girls who think of escaping from local agricultural work; others are children without adult supervision... most of whom are suspected of being taken to China to marry or become prostitutes.

Difficult work of prevention and control

In the first 6 months of 2024, functional forces in the province discovered and arrested 8 cases and 17 subjects for human trafficking, all related to China.

On January 13, 2024, Department PC02, Nghe An Provincial Police; Ky Son District Police co-chaired the successful investigation of the case code "124M" and arrested 3 subjects: Ven Hai Yen, born in 1994, residing in Cha Lan village, Huu Lap commune, Ky Son district; Moong Thi Ha, born in 1991, residing in Cha Lan village, Huu Lap commune, Ky Son district and Hooc Thi Nan, born in 1992, residing in Ta Do village, Muong Tip commune, Ky Son district, for the act of "Human trafficking". Based on the investigation results, it was determined that: In 2018, Ven Hai Yen, Hooc Thi Nan, Moong Thi Ha tricked and sold Chich Thi H., born in 2000, residing in Cha Lan village, Huu Lap commune, Ky Son district to a Chinese person for 50,000 yuan (about 150,000,000 VND).

On May 10, 2024, PC02 Department, Nghe An Provincial Police in coordination with Tuong Duong District Police successfully broke up a special case coded "524M" and arrested 3 subjects: Luong Thi Bien, born in 1986, residing in Huoi Tho village, Huu Kiem commune, Ky Son district; Xeo Van Hien, born in 1976, residing in Huoi Tho village, Huu Kiem commune, Ky Son district and Xeo Thi Thanh, born in 1994, residing in Cham Puong village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district for the act of "Trafficking in people under 16 years old". Based on the investigation results, it was determined that: On March 9, 2024, Luong Thi Bien, Xeo Van Hien, Xeo Thi Thanh tricked and sold Cut Thi T., born in 2012; Lu Thi H., born in 2012, both residing in Cham Puong village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district, and Lo Thi N., born in 2007, residing in Ca Moong village, Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district, gave money to Chinese people for about 165,000,000 VND/person.

Up to now, the situation of human trafficking crimes is still potentially complicated, the number of victims is relatively large but the number of supported victims is still limited, most of them only stop at receiving support, supporting transportation costs to return home, and initial essential needs. In addition, management and prevention work has not achieved certain effectiveness, there is no inter-sectoral coordination mechanism between functional sectors: Police, Border Guard, Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, so the coordination to grasp information about victims of trafficking is still limited, leading to difficulties in supporting services for victims, victims have not been transferred and connected to services in a timely manner.

Propaganda and education work in the community faces many difficulties, especially propaganda for people in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, and mountainous areas with difficulties in terms of travel conditions, propaganda methods, and raising awareness.

Identifying the prevention and combat of human trafficking as a key, urgent, regular and long-term task that requires focused and drastic direction, the People's Committee of Nghe An province requested departments, branches and localities to arrange and mobilize legal resources for the prevention and combat of human trafficking crimes commensurate with the requirements and tasks in the new situation.

At the same time, propaganda and warnings for people in remote areas about the risks they may encounter when falling into the trap of human traffickers. That is, they need to carefully research invitations to make friends, go on trips, or introduce jobs; refuse firmly when they see something unusual; Ask for opinions from at least 3 trustworthy people before making a decision; regularly update the situation with relatives and friends when working far away; prepare addresses and reliable phone numbers when needing help such as: National switchboard - hotline for preventing human trafficking 111.

Thanh Nga