Mountain girl sold to China escapes and returns to denounce her neighbor's crime

(Baonghean.vn)- After nearly 4 years of working as a slave in a foreign land, a 14-year-old mountain girl was lucky to escape, reunite with her family and file a complaint against her vicious neighbor.

Moong Thi Ngan (born in 1998, residing in Chieu Luu commune, Ky Son district) wore a black shirt, her dyed blond hair was tied up high, revealing a thin, gaunt face, making her look much older than her 18 years. Ngan sat silently on the victim's chair, her arms folded neatly on the table, her sad eyes always looking up at the dock, where her neighbor was standing, and who her family once considered a benefactor.

Defendant Luong Van Ly

Ngan is a Thai ethnic, the fourth child in a family of six siblings. Her father died at a young age, and her family was poor, so Ngan could not study like her peers. Her life consisted of following her mother into the forest to pick bamboo shoots, chop firewood, and then bring them back to the lowlands to sell to earn money to buy rice.

At the age of 14, when the girls in the village were competing to get married, some even had children, Ngan had a different thought. Ngan wanted to work for money and then learn a trade to live a more comfortable life. When she had a stable job, Ngan would think about getting married and having children.

At the end of June 2012, Ngan's neighbor, Luong Van Ly (born in 1989), who worked as a worker in Binh Duong province, returned home. Knowing that Ly's company was recruiting workers aged 18 and over, Ngan wanted to work. Because she was not old enough to work, Ngan and her mother went to Muong Xen town (Ky Son district) to ask a strange man to correct her ID card so that she was 18 years old, then went to Ly's house to ask for help. Ly took Ngan to Binh Duong to work.

After two months of working, due to poor health, Ngan was fired by the company. Knowing that Ngan was unemployed and owed 2 million VND for food, Ly paid off Ngan's debt and took her home. In November 2012, on the way to Dien Chau town, Ly had the idea of ​​selling her to China to get money.

Ngan (in black) attends the trial of the man who sold her to China.

After contacting the buyer, Ly told Ngan, “Go to Hanoi to find a job.” As soon as she heard there was a job, Ngan nodded and agreed to follow Ly without any doubt. Upon arriving in Hanoi, Ly sold Ngan to a woman named Hong (unknown background) for 25 million VND.

This woman took Ngan to China through a small border crossing and then sold her to a Chinese man as his wife. Realizing that she had been tricked and sold, Ngan ran away. While wandering around looking for a way back home, she was forced by some Chinese people to work for a company without pay for many years. On October 10, 2015, with the help of a Vietnamese person, Ngan escaped back to Vietnam and filed a complaint against Ly's actions with the authorities. At the time of being tricked and sold to China, Moong Thi Ngan was only 14 years, 8 months, and 8 days old.

Ngan said in tears: “Over there, I only had 4 hours of rest a day. They forced me to work like a horse and gave me two meals a day. I was also beaten all the time because I didn’t understand their language and did the wrong thing. For many years, they didn’t pay me a penny. When I was sick, I had to grit my teeth and endure it, still had to get up and go to work. They wouldn’t give me money to buy medicine. I was afraid that I would die miserably in a foreign land, without a chance to return.”

While delivering goods to a customer, Ngan was lucky to meet a Vietnamese woman. Through her confidences, this woman gave Ngan money and helped her return home.

Standing in the dock, Luong Van Ly showed remorse and honestly confessed his actions. The defendant said that because the victim owed 2 million VND, he was afraid that he would not be able to pay, so he thought of selling the victim to pay off the debt. After the incident, the defendant's family remedied the consequences by compensating the victim's family 64 million VND.

After reviewing the details of the case, for the act of buying and selling children, the People's Court sentenced Luong Van Ly to 6 years in prison.

The trial ended, Ly was taken back to prison. Below the auditorium, Ngan looked at the defendant with sad eyes and sighed. “Because I was too trusting, I was taken advantage of and turned into a commodity without even realizing it. After so many storms, I just wish for my life to be peaceful so that I can live well in the days ahead.

*(The victim's name in the article has been changed)

Hoang Hai