Organizing for others to flee to Europe, 2 'brokers' in Nghe An sentenced

On August 28, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of Nguyen Thi Loan (born 1974), residing in Bao Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) and Tran The Phuong (born 1969), residing in Le Loi ward (Vinh city) for the crime of"Organize for others to flee abroad."

Investigators determined that around November 2018, Loan met a woman named Ly Ly in Hanoi. This person said that there was a route to Germany under the form of tourism.

Two defendants at trial. Photo: Tran Vu

Loan asked about the way to go, Ly Ly replied: "Workers from Vietnam go to Thailand as tourists, wait 5 - 10 days to get a visa in Thailand. Then they will be taken to another country.Europe, then go to Germany to work".

Loan agreed and was responsible for finding people, collecting documents, including passports and photos, totaling 15,000 USD, but agreed to report to the workers that it was 16,500 USD so that Loan could benefit 1,000 USD. The parties agreed that the money would be collected when the workers arrived in Germany.

Around the beginning of 2019, Loan directly consulted, collected passport, photos and other documents of Vu Thi L. with the promise of taking her to Germany to work.

At the same time, Tran The Phuong called Loan to ask about the method and price to send Ms. Tran Thi Thanh N. (Tien Giang) to Germany to work. Phuong then directly consulted, received N.'s photo and passport and gave them to Loan. Nguyen Thi Loan received 2 documents and brought them to Hanoi for Ly Ly.

On March 6, 2019, under Ly Ly's direction, Ms. L. and N. were present at the airport to complete exit procedures to Thailand. These two workers were accompanied by 4 other workers.

From Thailand, N. and L. were taken to France by the ring. However, when they arrived in France, the authorities refused to let them enter the country.expulsionThese two workers returned to Thailand. Afterwards, N. and L. returned to Vietnam.

In court, the two defendants admitted all their crimes and asked for a lighter sentence. The two defendants said they had not received any money in this case.

It is known that before this trial took place, Nguyen Thi Loan was sentenced to 26 months in prison but given a suspended sentence for the crime of “Organizing others to flee abroad”, with a probationary period of 52 months. During the probationary period, Loan re-offended, therefore, the panel of judges determined that this was an aggravating circumstance. Defendant Phuong was also sentenced to 2 years in prison for the same crime.

Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced Nguyen Thi Loan to 24 months in prison, combined with the previous sentence, forcing the defendant to serve a total sentence of 50 months in prison. Defendant Tran The Phuong received 6 months in prison for the crime of "Organizing others to flee abroad".