Mountain women tricked into selling fetuses for 80 to 140 million VND

Nghe An Newspaper reporter talks with a case of illegal border crossing for selling fetuses. Photo courtesy

Women who cross the border to sell fetuses

(Baonghean.vn) - For about a year now, in Nghe An, there has been a surge in the buying and selling of fetuses - a new tactic of human traffickers that the law still does not have specific regulations on.

According to the response of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, in recent times, the situation of human trafficking crimes in the province, especially in mountainous districts, has been potentially complicated. In which, a new criminal method has emerged: the subjects seek out families with pregnant women about to give birth (about 6 - 8 months) in mountainous areas, ethnic minorities to lure, entice and lure them to go to China to give birth and then sell the children to Chinese people, each case from 80 to 140 million VND..

In Ky Son district alone, through review, by the end of 2018, there were 25 cases of pregnant ethnic minority women going to China to give birth, of which the police force has verified and clarified 06 cases that admitted that after giving birth, they sold their children back to China. The remaining cases, due to their frequent absence from the locality, could not be verified and clarified.

The people who were lured and deceived were mainly ethnic minority women in the mountainous areas of western Nghe An. These are places with low education levels, difficult economic life, gullible people, many people lacking jobs, so they are easily deceived and seduced by these subjects.

The nature of this act is "Child trafficking" but because the victim (the child) could not be rescued and there was no document or basis to determine that the victim's mother went to China (there was only the victim's mother's statement and the subject's statement), the investigation and handling encountered many difficulties.

Fetal trafficking occurs frequently in the mountainous areas of western Nghe An. Photo: Google Maps

Recently, Nghe An Provincial Police also discovered a number of cases where these subjects were on their way to take pregnant women to China to give birth and then sell them to Chinese people. However, at this stage, the victim's mother had not yet given birth, so prosecuting them for "Human trafficking" or "Trafficking in persons under 16 years old" according to Articles 150 and 151 of the 2015 Penal Code would not be appropriate and there is no document guiding the prosecution of this act.

In current legal documents, a fetus is not considered a human being (even in the 2015 Penal Code, at point a, point c, clause 1, Article 123 stipulates two distinguishing circumstances "kill 2 or more people" and "kill a woman who is known to be pregnant"So it is understood that the fetus is not a second person). Thus, regarding the handling of the act of buying and selling fetuses, the law currently has no regulations to regulate.

Authorities help a woman from Huu Kiem commune (Ky Son) who was lured to China to give birth and return home. Photo: Document

Faced with the above situation, Nghe An Provincial Police reported to Department C02 and issued Official Dispatch No. 59/CAT-PV01 dated December 5, 2018 reporting to the leaders of the Ministry of Public Security, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, and the Ministry of Public Security's professional departments for direction and guidance.

While waiting for instructions from the Central Government, the Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 213/UBND-NC dated February 19, 2019 directing departments, branches, sectors, People's Committees of districts, cities and towns to strengthen solutions to prevent and combat human trafficking and fetal trafficking.

Currently, the Provincial Police are actively advising and proposing to the Central Judicial Branches to remove difficulties and obstacles in the field of preventing and combating human trafficking and fetal trafficking. At the same time, directing the Police of all units to coordinate with localities to strengthen propaganda work on new methods and tricks of committing this type of crime so that all levels, branches and people can proactively prevent and stop it effectively.