Returning to the villages of people who crossed the border to sell fetuses

Pregnant women management

Exactly half a year after conducting a series of investigative reports on the situation of women in this mountainous district crossing the border to China to give birth and then sell their babies, we returned to Huu Kiem commune (Ky Son district). This is considered one of the "hot spots" when more than 20 women were identified as having gone to China to sell their fetuses in a short time, especially in Dinh Son 1 and Dinh Son 2 villages. These villages are mainly inhabited by the Khmu ethnic group.

Dinh Son 1 Village is home to the Khmu people.

In early June, the winding concrete road leading to Dinh Son 1 village was deserted. During this season, people here often go to the fields quite far from the village, so we had to wait for many hours before meeting Ms. Lu Thi H. (37 years old). She is one of the women who returned from China to sell fetuses that Nghe An Newspaper mentioned in a previous series of articles.

“I don’t dare go anymore. Even if you pay billions, I still won’t sell my child. I feel so sorry for her,” said Ms. H.

This woman said that after Nghe An Newspaper published the story, local authorities and police often came to see her. They came to take statements and to mobilize and propagate. Through those meetings, she gradually realized the mistake of the couple.... "We were wrong. It was only because of poverty that urged us. But now, even if we starve to death, we will not sell our child anymore," H. said.

Police work with women who have just returned from going to China to sell their children.

For many months now, the police in Ky Son communes have had a very special list of people to manage. The people on this list are not drug addicts, nor are they bad guys who often cause trouble. They are simply pregnant women in the area.

That is one of the measures that Ky Son District Police have deployed since the beginning of this year to prevent the buying and selling of fetuses in this locality.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Lo Van Thao - Deputy Chief of Ky Son District Police, after making the list, the commune police are responsible for dividing each person and each village to manage. "Whoever is assigned to manage a woman must meet that person at least twice a week. During the meeting, they must wear police uniform, go to the house and see that the pregnant woman is still there before leaving to make a report. In addition, if they hear any information, they must appear immediately to prevent them from going to China to sell their child," Lieutenant Colonel Thao said, adding that this management only ends after the pregnant woman gives birth locally.

In this list, the police also pay more attention to Khmu women who are pregnant with their third or more children. These are the targets of those who specialize in taking women to China to sell their fetuses. “In some villages, if you are not closely managed and pregnant with your third or more children, you will definitely sell them,” said Lieutenant Colonel Thao.

Moong Thi Oanh and her mother are the characters that Nghe An Newspaper has reported in a series of articles about enticing neighbors to sell their children to China. Oanh has now been prosecuted by the investigation agency.

Prosecution of many women

According to the Ky Son District Police, the sale of fetuses is a very new method of human trafficking, and the criminals operate very sophisticatedly. These criminals mainly go to areas where many Khmu people live, targeting women with unplanned pregnancies, economic difficulties, and poor awareness to lure them. They often take advantage of people's "fear of being fined for having a third child" mentality, and at the same time offer enticements such as "if you take your child to China to give birth, the couple will get money and not have to work hard to raise the child. The child will be well taken care of..."

After accepting the offer, the two sides began to negotiate the price. “All these activities were carried out secretly, closely connected with Vietnamese subjects in China. A discreet network was formed. Once an agreement was reached, the subjects usually did not appear in person but mainly used the phone to communicate and give directions,” said Lieutenant Colonel Thao.

Moong Thi Ly, one of the people who brought women from Ky Son to China to sell their children, has also been prosecuted.

Immediately after Nghe An Newspaper reported, the leaders of Nghe An Provincial Police also sent a document to the central ministries and branches to ask for instructions due to problems with some regulations, but up to now, no guidance document has been issued to handle this situation.

In the 2017 Revised Penal Code, there are 5 crimes related to human trafficking but no mention of the sale of fetuses. Meanwhile, to constitute a crime, there must be a victim. However, in these cases, there is no victim so it cannot be handled. The victims here are children, fetuses. But many legal experts believe that fetuses are not human beings...

However, to create a deterrent, since the beginning of the year, Ky Son police have prosecuted 4 women for the crime of organizing others to illegally flee abroad for the purpose of selling fetuses. 3 of these 4 women are the characters that Nghe An Newspaper has mentioned. They are the ones who specialize in luring women in Ky Son district to take them to China to sell their children, but because the law has not yet clearly defined, the investigation agency can only prosecute this crime.

One of them is Moong Thi Oanh (32 years old, Cha Lan village, Huu Lap commune). Many years ago, Oanh left her husband, went to China to work and then married a local man. In early 2018, knowing that her neighbor Luong Thi Mui (48 years old, pregnant with her 6th child and having a difficult family situation), Oanh and her mother immediately approached and enticed her to go to China to sell the fetus with the promise of paying 60 million VND.

One of the women who returned from selling fetuses in China.

After crossing the border, Mui was taken to Oanh and her husband's house. Imprisoned there for 35 days, Mui gave birth to a chubby baby boy. Oanh then carried the baby boy to sell. 20 days after giving birth, Mui was taken back to Vietnam by Oanh and her son. However, contrary to the original promise, when Mui arrived at Cha Lan village, Oanh only paid Mui 4 million VND for the baby she had sold. Thuong and his wife then reported to the village management board to ask prestigious people in the village to put pressure on them and demand the money.

In addition, there is another character we have mentioned, Lu Thi Khuon (Dinh Son 1 village). Khuon is the person who specializes in bringing women from this village to China to sell their fetuses. At the time of publishing the series of reports, for fear of affecting the investigation process, we did not reveal the real name of this woman. However, before being prosecuted, Khuon managed to escape. Currently, the investigation agency has issued a wanted notice.

At the same time as prosecuting those involved in the fetal trafficking ring, Lieutenant Colonel Lo Van Thao said that recently, Ky Son Police have also regularly organized propaganda for prevention purposes. In particular, they focused on 9 communes where the Khmu ethnic group lives. The district police had to prepare many contents and forms of propaganda such as oral propaganda materials, materials read through local loudspeakers, and creating banners, slogans, posters, etc.

In addition, the police also established working groups, each group of about 4 comrades, mainly cadres with skills in mass mobilization and fluent in Khmu language, to coordinate with the government to go directly to households to propagate. After the meeting, the working group will organize for couples to sign a commitment not to sell their children.

Profiting from other people's pain

Tien and other victims of the accident were taken home by the authorities.

Not only was Tien the one who directly sold the child, before leaving, she also invited her neighbor Moong Thi Lam, causing her to lose her life. At that time, Lam was 8 months pregnant. “I regret it so much,” Tien said, her face full of fear as she recalled the fateful trip in a foreign land.

This traffic accident occurred in Duong Cao Commune, Lam Chuong District, Ha Bac Province (China), on September 20. Lam Chuong District Police later investigated and arrested the driver who caused the accident. The driver was forced to pay the hospital fees and compensate the injured. After being discharged from the hospital, Tien and 3 other women were detained here.

Meanwhile, in his hometown of Ky Son, hearing that his wife had an accident and could not return for many months, Tien's husband, Oc Van Long, could not help but worry. But since he was young, Long had never left this mountain corner, and his Vietnamese was still broken, so he did not dare to confidently go to a foreign country to find his wife. At this time, Long sought out Moong Van Tinh - Chairman of the Veterans Association of Chieu Luu commune because he knew that this man often went to China.

Thinking that this was an opportunity to make money, Tinh suggested, “If the family wants to bring Xeo Thi Tien back, give me 15 million VND.” Mr. Long then had to borrow money from everywhere to have enough money to give Tinh. However, according to Tien, when he arrived in China and met her at the hospital, Tinh only threatened her and did not take her back to Vietnam.

Moong Van Tinh at the investigation agency.

In January 2019, the Criminal Police Department (Ministry of Public Security), together with Nghe An Provincial Police and the Blue Dragon Child Protection Organization, brought Ms. Tien and 3 other women in this accident to Ky Son district to hand over to their families. Ms. Tien said that to be able to return to Vietnam, Tinh did not do anything. After being brought home, Ms. Tien and her husband came to demand the 15 million VND back, but the Chairman of the Commune Veterans Association still refused to return it and said that they were able to return because of his work... After many months of not being able to get the money back, a few days ago, Ms. Tien and her husband filed a complaint against Tinh to the police.

Suspected of being in a human trafficking ring

Coincidentally, right after submitting the complaint, the Investigation Agency of Ky Son District Police also immediately prosecuted and arrested Moong Van Tinh to investigate the act of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property", regulated in Article 140 of the 1999 Penal Code. However, this commune official was prosecuted in another case, and the complaint of Tien's couple as well as some other suspicions about this official, the police are still continuing to verify.

Accordingly, on May 8, Ky Son police received a complaint from Mr. Xeo Van Toan (44 years old), residing in Luu Tien village, Chieu Luu commune, Ky Son district, accusing Tinh of appropriating 48 million VND from him and his wife. According to the police investigation, around April 2016, Ms. Lu Thi Thuy (Mr. Toan's wife) was prosecuted by Tuong Duong district police for "human trafficking" but was released on bail. On May 1, 2016, Tinh called Ms. Thuy to his house to "discuss". Here, Ms. Thuy gave Tinh 500,000 VND to buy beer. After drinking beer, Ms. Thuy asked Tinh to ask for a reduced sentence, Tinh asked for 30 million VND to take care of things. Ms. Thuy agreed and gave 30 million VND to Tinh.

Dinh Son 1 Village, where women consider selling their children as a way to make a living.

A few days later, Tinh continued to call Ms. Thuy to prepare another 18 million VND, of which 10 million VND was to take care of Thuy's affairs, and the remaining 8 million VND he said was a personal loan. Trusting the commune official with wide connections, Ms. Thuy immediately agreed. However, contrary to this woman's expectations, on September 22, 2016, Nghe An Provincial People's Court sentenced Thuy to 4 years in prison but did not have to serve the sentence because she was raising a child under 36 months old. After returning to her hometown, Thuy went to Tinh's house to ask why he had received the money but could not take care of Thuy, but he repeatedly showed a challenging and threatening attitude.

Lieutenant Colonel Lo Van Thao said that after being arrested, Moong Van Tinh always showed an uncooperative attitude. However, with the evidence collected by the police, he later had to bow his head and admit his guilt. Regarding the case of Xeo Thi Tien and her husband accusing Tinh of appropriating 15 million VND, the police initially confirmed this. In addition, Tinh was also accused that during his trip to China, he received compensation money from the perpetrator of the traffic accident but then did not give it to the victims. "We are still waiting for the translation of all these accusations from China and taking statements from many other witnesses to continue to clarify," Lieutenant Colonel Thao said.

To date, the law has not been amended to deal with crimes related to the sale of fetuses.

Mr. Luong Thinh Vuong - Chairman of the People's Committee of Chieu Luu commune said that Tinh (45 years old), after returning from the army, became the Commune Team Leader of Chieu Luu. He later became Chairman of the Veterans Association of the commune, and was very active in his work. At the recently held Congress, Tinh was re-elected to this position for a second term. "However, I have long been suspicious of Tinh because there were very unusual signs. In the mountains, his wife only worked as a farmer but had a luxury car to drive," said Mr. Vuong.

According to the Chairman of the People's Committee of Chieu Luu Commune, every day after work, Tinh drives into the Khmu villages to "whisper" to the people here "in a very mysterious way". On weekends, he is often in China. "I only manage staff during office hours. As for Mr. Tinh, every Friday he goes to China and returns the following week. Once I asked him, he even said, "If you want to go to China, I will take you there, it's very easy". I also suspect that Mr. Tinh is part of a network that sends people abroad," said Mr. Vuong.

Chieu Luu is one of the communes with the largest number of people going to China to work illegally in Nghe An. Especially for the Khmu ethnic group. According to the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, almost every day in this commune there is one person returning from China or going there. Many women who go there to work often have children with Chinese men and then bring them back to the locality for their families to take care of.

The law has not been adjusted yet.

Sending a report to the National Assembly on a number of issues related to the group of questions before the question-and-answer session in the recent National Assembly session, Minister of Public Security To Lam said that the police force has discovered many cases of trafficking children and fetuses to China.
For example, Nghe An Province Police discovered 25 cases of ethnic minority women in Ky Son District who became pregnant and went to China to give birth and then sell their babies.
Although many cases have been discovered, according to Minister To Lam's report, the handling of the cases still has many problems. For cases of enticing pregnant women to go to China to give birth and sell their children, the nature of the act is "buying and selling children", but because the victim (the baby) 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.
Police in some localities discovered a number of cases where the subjects were on their way to take pregnant women to China to give birth and then sell the child to Chinese people, but at this stage, the mother had not yet given birth, so if prosecuted for the crime of "human trafficking" or "trafficking in persons under 16 years old" according to Articles 150 and 151 of the Penal Code, it would be inappropriate and there is no document guiding the prosecution of this act. Currently, there are no legal regulations regulating the act of buying and selling fetuses.

According to the report of General To Lam - Minister of Public Security, the handling of trafficking of children and fetuses still has many problems. Photo: VnExpress

Tien Hung