Hanoi
(AsiaNews/Agencies) ? The slave trade in Vietnam is making unhindered
progress as traffickers running the racket evade controls to proceed with
their activities, say international human rights organizations. A
spokesman at the Hanoi branch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said
that ?while there is lack of clear data, human trafficking is on the
increase?.
The
government said that around 9,000 Vietnamese were trafficked in the past
year, most of them women under 25 years who were sold to China for the
prostitution market. International organizations say this estimate is ?too
low?.
Most
traffickers are of Vietnamese nationality and they work together with
their Chinese counterparts. To ensnare their victims ? usually coming from
poor villages ? they use diverse means, like promises of marriage to rich
men or offers of work. Other times, people are drugged and thrown into a
truck. Apart from women, many children are kidnapped.
Last year,
Vietnam and China launched an unprecedented joint campaign to stop the
flow of slaves between the two countries. Some trafficking groups were
exposed and information campaigns were organized in villages. However, the
attempt has proved ineffective in the face of market forces, that is,
improved mobility combined with economic growth excluding rural areas,
leading to inequality.
Nguyen Manh
Te, a senior official with Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security, said
?poverty is held to the main reason behind trafficking? and, he added, ?it
is difficult to find a solution to the problem?.
The office
of the International Organisation for migration (IOM) in Hanoi, one of
several foreign agencies supporting the Vietnam initiative against the
slave trade, said mobility was a serious obstacle in the fight against
trafficking.
By now there
is road access to all but the most remote, poverty-plagued villages in
Vietnam," said Andy Bruce, mission chief for the IOM in Vietnam. ?Abuse
and mobility go hand in hand.?