Working together to stop human trafficking

(Baonghean) - According to information from the People's Committee of Nghe An province during a meeting with the Office of the Independent High Commissioner for Modern Slavery of the United Kingdom on the morning of December 2 in Vinh City, the victims of human trafficking in Nghe An are mainly children and women aged 14 to 30, or "late-age" women...

With more than 3.1 million people, Nghe An is the fourth most populous locality in the country (after Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Thanh Hoa), leading to a great demand for jobs, especially for labor export; therefore, Nghe An has a great potential for human trafficking.

In fact, in addition to the number of identified victims, in mountainous villages and ethnic minority areas, every year many women and children leave their homes, suspected of being trafficked. Most of these women are adults and do not want to stay home and work on the fields, so they connect with and find people to go first or are lured into running away from home.

In Nghe An, human trafficking crimes are widespread and complicated in some districts such as Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, Con Cuong, Quy Chau, Yen Thanh, Dien Chau. Criminals often use money to lure and defraud families who are especially poor, unemployed or have unstable jobs, and low incomes. Or they target the competitive mentality of some young people; teenage girls who think of escaping from local agricultural work, wanting to find leisurely jobs with higher incomes; children without adult supervision...

Mr. Kevin Hyland, UK Independent Commissioner for Modern Slavery, visited victims of trafficking in An Hoa commune, Quynh Luu district on December 2.

According to information provided by the representative of the British Embassy in Hanoi, the UK has recently become one of the "hot destinations" for human trafficking from Vietnam. Up to now, Vietnam is one of the 5 countries with the most people reporting to the system to identify victims of modern slavery crimes in the UK, along with Albania, Poland, Nigeria and Romania. Most of them illegally immigrated through modern slavery crime routes to the UK, participating in a number of illegal occupations in the fields of agriculture, construction, etc. Notably, many people are forced to work in prostitution rings, cannabis cultivation, etc. These are truly alarming figures about the human trafficking situation that is happening not only in Nghe An (Vietnam) but in many countries around the world.

Mr. Kevin Hyland, the UK Independent Commissioner for Modern Slavery, said that in 2014, there were 2,340 people registered with the government as victims of human trafficking in the UK, of whom 216 were Vietnamese. In the first 9 months of 2015 alone, the number of victims exceeded 3,300, of whom 317 were Vietnamese. Of the Vietnamese victims, 60% were men, and more than half were male minors.

Representatives of the Office of the Independent High Commissioner for Modern Slavery of the United Kingdom visited the family of a victim in Quynh Luu district who was trafficked to China.

To prevent and combat human trafficking, each locality and each country not only needs to make great efforts but also must attach importance to international cooperation to achieve high efficiency. This is also one of the reasons for the official visit to Vietnam of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron from July 29-30, 2015.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung agreed to promote the negotiation of a memorandum of understanding on preventing and combating human trafficking. International cooperation is also the motto of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Blue Dragon Children's Organization, and in fact has brought about practical results.

Representatives of the Blue Dragon Children's Organization visited the victims' health and mental health after they were rescued and brought back to their hometown.

Thanks to the trend of international cooperation, many victims of human trafficking in Vietnam in general and Nghe An in particular have been promptly rescued and received both material and spiritual assistance. In 2015, Nghe An province organized the reception and support for 29 victims of human trafficking to return to their hometowns with initial conditions such as round-trip transportation fees, psychological and medical counseling, and mass organizations to visit, encourage and help victims reintegrate into the community.

Also during the meeting with the People's Committee of Nghe An province on the morning of December 2, 2015, the Blue Dragon Organization also hoped to build a support center in our province to provide services to help victims of human trafficking crimes and received high approval from the People's Committee of Nghe An province.

Ms. Julienne Megan Carey - Head of the Blue Dragon Children's Representative Office said: "We know that Nghe An is a bright spot in education, and at the same time, the attention, direction and leadership of the authorities are always close, supporting and ensuring the lives of the people"...

Nghe An was chosen as the destination of the delegation from the Office of the Independent High Commissioner of the United Kingdom and representatives of the Blue Dragon Children's Organization, which specializes in supporting children who are victims of human trafficking, to discuss plans to further promote practical and effective actions in the coming time, promptly responding to this increasingly sophisticated type of crime.

During the visit and working session in Nghe An, the delegation also visited the families of two victims in Quynh Luu district who had just been rescued from a human trafficking ring to China. The delegation listened to the victims and their relatives, learned about the current awareness of human trafficking in Nghe An, and recorded the thoughts and aspirations of the minors who had just been rescued and returned to their localities. From the information collected, the delegation will have specific directions to make detailed plans in the coming time, with the desire to make efforts to eliminate human trafficking, detect and prevent human trafficking schemes, and help and support victims to quickly reintegrate into society.

Hoai Thu - Thu Giang