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### Viewing cable 03HANOI527, VIETNAM - ANNUAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
03HANOI527 | 2003-03-06 08:00 | 2011-08-25 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED | Embassy Hanoi

`

    This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

` `

    UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 14 HANOI 000527

    SIPDIS

    SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

    STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, EAP/RSP, AND
    EAP/BCLTV

    STATE PASS TO USAID

    USDOL FOR ILAB

    E.O. 12958: N/A
    TAGS: KCRM PHUM KCRM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB VM TIP LABOR
    SUBJECT: VIETNAM - ANNUAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
    REPORT, 2003

    REF: A) STATE 22225

         B) 2002 HANOI 03000
         C) 2002 HANOI 01790
         D) 2002 HANOI 01061

    ¶1.  (U) As instructed ref A, post provides input for the
    2003 Anti-trafficking in Persons report.  The point of
    contact in Vietnam is Tim Swanson, tel. 84-4-772-1500 and
    fax 84-4-772-2614.  Post estimates that collecting
    information for and drafting the report required 48 hours,
    including 8 hours by an FSN.  Post would appreciate having
    the opportunity to comment on the placement and the report
    language for Vietnam based on the following information.

    ¶2.  (SBU) Below are answers to the questions posed in
    paragraphs 16, 17, 18, and 19 of ref A.

    Begin response to questions.

    ¶16.  Overview:

    ¶A.  Vietnam is both a country of origin and transit for
    trafficked persons.  In addition, women and children are
    also trafficked within Vietnam, usually from rural to urban
    areas.  Poor women and teenage girls, especially those from
    rural areas, are most at risk for being trafficked.  Men
    from similar situations are more likely to seek low paid,
    unskilled, manual labor either in Vietnam's cities or
    abroad.

    Vietnam has neither comprehensive nor reliable statistics on
    the numbers of persons trafficked from and through Vietnam.
    However, local and foreign experts agree the numbers are
    proportionally lower than those of most other countries in
    the region.

    Available statistics are primarily based on cases brought to
    court through 2001.  Because this data only counts cases
    that are discovered and prosecuted, they underestimate the
    true extent of trafficking in persons in Vietnam.  Only
    partial statistics are available for 2002, although the
    officials of the Supreme People's Procuracy have stated that
    "hundreds" of traffickers are prosecuted annually.  An
    article published in 2002 in newspapers of the Border Guards
    Command and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) reported
    256 trafficking cases with 438 defendants in 2001 and 213
    cases with 351 defendants in 2000.  Between the beginning of
    2001 and early 2003, MPS recorded 270 court cases involving
    trafficking to China with 428 defendants, of whom 200 were
    men.  During the same time period, MPS noted 1080 victims of
    trafficking to China, including 1058 women and girls as well
    as 22 boys.  One MPS estimate is that the actual volume of
    trafficking is six to ten times higher, but Post is unaware
    of the basis for this guess.  On average in the 1990's,
    Vietnamese courts heard 300-400 cases per year, involving
    500-700 trafficking victims.  According to a 2001 Vietnamese
    press report, between 1996 and 2000, police "cracked down on
    61 women trafficking rings involving 598 individuals."  The
    statistics available do not include information on
    conviction rates for trafficking and related charges, but
    the overall conviction rate in Vietnamese courts is about
    95%.  Therefore, post believes that nearly as many
    traffickers were convicted as prosecuted.

    Data available from border guards concerning women and
    children being trafficked abroad are spotty.  According to
    one report, between 1990-2000, approximately 20,000 young
    women and girls went to China to become brides, domestic
    workers, or sex workers; however, it is not clear how many
    were victims of trafficking.  (Note: Observers believe many,
    if not most, of these young women were voluntary migrants
    and, at least initially, not victims of trafficking.)  Also
    according to border statistics, from 1995-2000, 5000 women
    and children were trafficked to, and subsequently escaped
    from, Cambodia.  As with other statistics available on
    trafficking, these data likely underestimate the magnitude
    of the problem.  According to a Vietnamese press report
    dated 11/28/01, "Seventy percent, or 31,500, of a total of
    45,000 prostitutes working in Cambodia is Vietnamese, of
    whom 30% are under 17."  Although some of these sex workers
    were from Cambodia's ethnic Vietnamese minority, some were
    trafficked from Vietnam.  (Note:  Post was not able to
    obtain updated statistics on cross border movements.  End
    note.)  According to International Organization for
    Migration (IOM) sources, "several dozen" Vietnamese
    trafficking victims, many of them teenagers, were
    repatriated from Cambodia in 2001 and 2002.

    ¶B.   Vietnamese trafficking victims originate primarily from
    poor rural provinces bordering Cambodia and China.  Some
    also come from other nearby highland provinces.  There is
    also evidence that a smaller number of victims are from
    poor, urban areas.

    Women and girls trafficked abroad go primarily to Cambodia
    and China.  Some women from Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong
    Delta who married men from Taiwan were forced into
    prostitution or domestic servitude after their arrival in
    Taiwan.  Since 1995, about 60,000 Vietnamese women have gone
    to Taiwan as brides.  Vietnamese and Taiwan estimates of the
    number who have encountered difficulties, including but not
    limited to trafficking, vary from less than one percent up
    to 14 or 15 percent, but most fall around five percent.
    There have also been reports that Vietnamese women have been
    trafficked to Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and
    Thailand.  During 2002, there were at least two local press
    reports about Vietnamese women trafficked for prostitution
    from Ho Chi Minh City to Malaysia via Bangkok.  MPS
    confirmed that trafficking of women to Malaysia is a growing
    problem, with criminal organizations taking advantage of
    labor export programs.  Some of this trafficking occurs
    directly from Vietnam.  There are also reports that
    Vietnamese residing elsewhere in the region have been
    trafficked to third countries.  For example, the Vietnamese
    press reported arrests of traffickers accused of moving
    Vietnamese (and others) from Cambodia to Thailand and
    Malaysia.  MPS noted that is has "good information" that
    some Vietnamese women trafficked to China are subsequently
    trafficked to third countries, especially Japan and the
    United States.

    Vietnamese authorities, in cooperation with the INS and
    other third country law enforcement officials, have
    documented cases of trafficking in Vietnamese babies for
    international adoption, especially in the area of directed
    adoption, involving payments to parents in exchange for
    releasing their babies for adoption.

    Trafficking also occurs within Vietnam, primarily from poor
    rural areas to the relatively wealthier urban areas of Ho
    Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Haiphong, and Danang.  In the past,
    Vietnamese officials have been relatively reluctant to
    acknowledge internal trafficking.  More recently, officials
    have discussed internal trafficking alongside international
    trafficking and have noted that the definition of
    trafficking in Vietnamese law does not require crossing a
    border.   There are no official data on the extent of
    internal trafficking.  According to one MPS estimate,
    domestic trafficking accounted for approximately 44.5% of
    all Vietnamese women trafficked, although experts in
    trafficking issues question the origin and reliability of
    this statistic, suspecting it may be too high.  Experts
    agreed the GVN has begun to give greater attention to the
    issue of internal trafficking.

    Vietnam is also a known transit point for trafficking.
    While Vietnamese authorities focus on protecting and
    providing services to Vietnamese citizens, U.S. and third
    country law enforcement officials note that third country
    organized criminal gangs use Vietnam as a transit point from
    China and a number of Middle Eastern countries to Australia,
    Europe, and Canada.  Vietnamese police cooperate with third
    country law enforcement personnel on such cases.  According
    to an INS official in Vietnam this cooperation has
    progressed to the point that not only are Vietnamese
    officials reacting to tips and queries but are also asking
    INS and the Australian Federal Police for advice and
    collaboration on suspected cases.  Such cases prompted
    Australia and Vietnam to sign an agreement stating their
    mutual commitment to combating trafficking in women and
    children.  Vietnam has clearly and repeatedly indicated its
    willingness to conclude other such agreements, including
    with the United States.

    ¶C.  Reliable statistical information on trafficking in
    persons remains scarce and incomplete.  UNICEF and MPS
    reported that 2002 survey of ten northern provinces showed
    that a growing proportion of victims were coming from
    provinces far from the China border.  UNICEF also noted that
    some recently repatriated victims from China were actually
    from southern Vietnam and had been trafficked to China
    through Cambodia.  Preliminary findings of a
    UNDP/International Labor Organization (ILO) study conducted
    in conjunction with a project to combat trafficking in the
    Mekong sub-region discovered that many women originally
    reportedly trafficked to China from one province in the
    1990's had not actually been trafficked.  GVN officials have
    been quoted in the press as admitting that trafficking was a
    growing problem.  All sources Post interviewed for this
    report claimed, however, that it was impossible to tell
    whether the problem was growing; while there is some feeling
    that it may be leveling off, no officials claimed that it
    was declining.  It is not clear if the overall problem is
    indeed growing, or if it is merely the officials' awareness
    of trafficking (and its patterns and causes) that is
    growing.

    ¶D.  UNODCP plans to undertake a thorough survey of
    trafficking in Vietnam in cooperation with the MPS, the
    Supreme People's Procuracy, and the Women's Union.  The
    project would also set up a sustainable data collection
    system to be housed within a new office of crime statistics
    within the Procuracy.  Post has submitted a funding request
    to INL to carry out this project (Ref B).  The Vietnam
    portion of a UNDP/ILO regional project combating trafficking
    in women and children in the Mekong sub-region is updating
    and reviewing existing studies to gain a more comprehensive
    understanding of trafficking.  This project is also
    developing a case management database that may be used in
    the future to add to what we know about trafficking in
    persons in Vietnam.  Preliminary findings (see 16. C.)
    indicate that many earlier reported cases do not meet the
    definition of trafficking.  The supposed victims reported
    that they had been free to return at any time.  Many
    Vietnamese and international trafficking experts have
    expressed concern about the lack of data, which makes design
    of appropriate prevention and protection measures difficult,
    and are seeking funding from the U.S. and other donors to
    carry out this much needed survey work.   The Asia
    Foundation has received funding from G/TIP for an anti-
    trafficking project, one component of which is research into
    the root causes of trafficking and gaps in available
    coverage.  The project is just getting underway.  UNICEF and
    MPS plan to replicate in ten southern provinces a survey
    they conducted in ten northern provinces in 2002 (see 16.
    C.).

    ¶E.  Post has no information that Vietnam is a destination
    point for trafficking victims.

    ¶F.  Poor women and teenage girls, especially those from
    rural areas, are most at risk for being trafficked.  UNICEF
    research showed that victims tend to be from moderately poor
    rural areas and have from six to nine years of education.
    Few come from the most remote and poorest areas, although
    recently there appears to be demand in China for Vietnamese
    ethnic minorities because they are "more docile" than the
    ethnic majority Kinh.  Some are sold or indentured by their
    families as domestic workers or sex workers.  Some want to
    be brides of foreign husbands.  Tales of lucrative
    employment lures others.  They then find themselves forced
    into brothels, abusive marriages, or involuntary servitude,
    especially as domestics.  IOM reports that young girls and
    women who are trafficked often are tricked by enticing
    offers brokered by acquaintances.  In addition, the family
    members of teenage girls in poor rural areas often turn a
    blind eye to the details of perceived lucrative offers for
    their daughters' employment abroad.  Poor families in the
    Mekong Delta region sometimes take a payment of several
    hundred dollars - a large sum for many families (per capita
    income is $400 countrywide and in rural areas is
    considerably lower) - in exchange for allowing their
    daughters to go to Cambodia for an "employment offer."  IOM
    reports that, while there was no indication that the number
    of such victims changed substantially in 2001-2002, the age
    of some girls trafficked to Cambodia has fallen to 13-15,
    something not seen before.  UNICEF also reported that, for
    the first time, in 2002 some girls trafficked to China were
    also as young as 13-15.

    Post believes that the Vietnamese traffickers have been
    primarily individual opportunists or small groups.  MPS has
    become concerned with what it describes as progressively
    more sophisticated criminal groups that are using legal
    fronts such as labor export companies and tourism agencies
    to conduct trafficking in persons.  While these groups
    appear to be entirely Vietnamese, some include Vietnamese
    residing abroad.  Anecdotal evidence from organizations such
    as IOM, ILO, and MPS, as well as foreign consular
    authorities in Vietnam, suggest that informal networks
    operate, with "brokers" introducing women and girls to those
    who offer employment abroad, often disguising the real
    nature of the (sex) work.  Frequently, these "brokers" are
    family members or from the same community as the victim.  At
    times, they, too, have been victims of trafficking and
    return to "recruit" others.  Some experts have expressed
    concern that traffickers are becoming more organized and
    developing direct affiliations to others involved in
    smuggling of goods, and perhaps, drug trafficking.  Ministry
    of Justice (MOJ) officials contacted for this report
    indicated that there did not seem to be any significant
    overlap between drug traffickers and human traffickers.  MPS
    has described loosely linked cells, each specializing in
    particular tasks such as recruiting or cross-border
    smuggling, which form chains to carry out human trafficking.
    Reliable observers have noted that individual members of
    Taiwanese organized crime groups are among those bringing
    Vietnamese women to Taiwan through marriage.  However, other
    than use of Vietnam as a transit point for trafficked
    persons, there is little other hard evidence of involvement
    by international organized crime at present.

    MPS is paying increasing attention to the involvement of GVN
    officials in trafficking in persons.  Such involvement
    appears primarily to be through providing false documents as
    well as authentic, but fraudulently obtained, passports.
    Greater MPS scrutiny parallels a longer-standing effort to
    crack down on mid- and low-level officials providing false
    documents in support of fraudulent international adoptions.

    ¶G.  There is a commitment at the highest levels of the GVN
    to combating trafficking in persons.  In 1997, the Prime
    Minister issued a decree instructing GVN ministries to
    combat trafficking in women and children and assigning
    responsibilities in this effort.  Since that time, official
    GVN entities have made a good faith effort to address
    trafficking.  As an initial step, the GVN amended the
    existing criminal code to increase the penalties for
    trafficking in women and children, which is specifically
    prohibited by law.  The GVN developed and has begun
    implementing a five-year Plan of Action Against Prostitution
    2001-2005, which addresses combating trafficking in women
    and children both abroad and internally.  The Ministry of
    Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) continues to
    work on a dedicated action plan against trafficking in women
    and children.  Conceptually, this would task an
    interministerial working group led by a Deputy Prime
    Minister with coordinating anti-trafficking activities.
    Numerous anti-trafficking initiatives have been and are
    being conducted by a variety of government agencies and
    Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)-affiliated mass
    organizations.  The GVN has devoted scarce domestic
    resources -- financial, human, and physical -- and drawn on
    international assistance to conduct trafficking initiatives.
    The MOJ, in cooperation with UNICEF, organized a national
    workshop in 2002 to begin efforts to revise laws and
    implement the necessary systemic changes for Vietnam to
    ratify and implement the Optional Protocol Against the Worst
    Forms of Trafficking in Women and Children of the Covenant
    Against Transnational Organized Crime.  In 2002, various GVN
    entities agreed to participate in anti-trafficking projects
    undertaken by the UNODCP, UNICEF, IOM, and the Asia
    Foundation.  In 2002, the GVN actively participated in
    implementing two anti-trafficking projects conducted by the
    UNDP and the ILO as part of their larger Mekong regional
    anti-trafficking programs.

    ¶H.  The GVN officially condemns trafficking in persons and
    there is no evidence that any GVN agencies have engaged in
    or tolerated trafficking.  However, experts in this field
    report that individual GVN officials, most frequently border
    guards and other low- to mid-level functionaries, have taken
    bribes in return for facilitating trafficking.  Corruption
    by GVN officials is recognized as a serious problem at all
    levels in Vietnam.  According to GVN sources, the GVN has
    prosecuted and convicted a number of officials involved in
    baby selling and other forms of trafficking, but they were
    unable to provide specifics.  Official media reports have
    also mentioned several prosecutions against local officials
    involved in illegal adoption schemes.  In the case of the
    sale of children for fraudulent international adoptions,
    Post has hard evidence of the involvement of some mid-level
    GVN ministry and provincial officials.  MOJ officials noted
    at least four trafficking cases prosecuted against local GVN
    officials in 2002.

    State-owned labor supply companies reportedly supplied
    workers to a Korean-owned garment manufacturer, Daewoosa, in
    American Samoa.  These workers were subjected to debt
    bondage, mistreatment, threats, and abuse.  The Korean owner
    has been convicted of involuntary servitude, money
    laundering, conspiracy, and extortion in this case, but was
    not tried on trafficking charges.  There has not been a
    legal determination that these workers were trafficked or
    that the Vietnamese manpower supply companies were involved
    in trafficking.  Partly as a result of this case, the GVN
    initiated a widely publicized review of the operations and
    finances of licensed labor supply companies, which resulted
    in the temporary or permanent suspension of the operating
    licenses of several companies, including one that supplied
    workers to Daewoosa.  In addition, the director of the
    second labor supply company involved with Daewoosa was
    convicted on corruption charges.  While Post is not aware of
    a direct connection between the director's conviction and
    the Daewoosa case, some of our contacts have speculated that
    the investigation that led to his conviction resulted in
    part from the scrutiny brought to bear on the company by the
    American Samoa case.

    ¶I.  The GVN faces very real financial and manpower
    constraints that limit its anti-trafficking efforts.
    Resource constraints are a major obstacle to progress in the
    fight against trafficking in persons, including prevention,
    investigation and prosecution, and assistance to victims.
    Vietnam is one of the world's poorest countries, with an
    annual per capita income of approximately $400.  Anti-
    trafficking programs compete with other important but under-
    funded public programs including health, poverty
    alleviation, basic sanitation, education, and other public
    services.  Social programs are not the only ones that go
    begging in the budget process.  Infrastructure development,
    law enforcement, and even national defense struggle with
    severe financial constraints.  The country's poverty is the
    major "push" for the poor who are at greatest risk of
    falling victim to trafficking schemes.  The shortage of
    financial resources also keeps GVN salaries very low, widely
    perceived as a major factor contributing to corruption,
    which in turn can facilitate trafficking.

    ¶17.  Prevention:

    ¶A.  The GVN has officially acknowledged that trafficking in
    persons is a problem.  NGOs generally give the GVN high
    marks for its forthright efforts to try to prevent
    trafficking; GVN agencies are actively searching for
    additional foreign assistance to address the problem.  GVN
    officials working in the area recognize that trafficking
    could further expand if serious efforts are not made to
    combat it.  National Assembly members have described
    trafficking as a "burning issue."

    ¶B.  Several GVN agencies and organizations are engaged in
    anti-trafficking work.  MOLISA is responsible for prevention
    and rehabilitation.  Other concerned ministries include the
    MPS, the MOJ, and the Border Guards Command of the Ministry
    of Defense.  Also involved are the GVN Committee for
    Population, Family, and Children (CPFC) (note:  A 2002
    government reorganization merged the Committee for
    Protection and Care of Children (CPCC) with the Committee
    for Population and Family Planning. end note), the Supreme
    People's Procuracy, and several CPV-affiliated mass
    organizations, including the Women's Union, the Youth Union,
    and, to a lesser extent, the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce
    and Industry and the Vietnamese General Confederation of
    Labor.

    ¶C.  Yes.  MOLISA, the Women's Union, and the CPFC all have
    active information campaigns using a variety of formats,
    including distribution of leaflets and training of community
    trainers aimed at populations deemed to be at risk, as well
    as general information campaigns via the state-owned media.
    These campaigns have been useful, but experts have stated
    that both the messages and the methods are staid and could
    be improved to increase campaigns' effectiveness, especially
    in the south.  The Asia Foundation is beginning a USG-funded
    project in cooperation with the Women's Union that will test
    and evaluate the suitability of several international best
    practices in information campaigns.

    ¶D.  GVN and CPV-affiliated organizations also conduct
    programs to prevent trafficking, such as vocational
    training, enterprise development, and micro-credit.  There
    is general agreement that one of the major underlying
    factors leading to trafficking in Vietnam is poverty and
    uneven distribution of the benefits of the economic reforms
    and integration underway since the late 1980's.  Therefore,
    these organizations support programs designed to create jobs
    and alleviate poverty.  Such projects have long been
    conducted under large poverty alleviation programs.  More
    recently, the GVN and international donors have begun
    incorporating them as specific strategies in anti-
    trafficking programs.  The GVN raised the level of universal
    education from six years to nine years in 2001.

    ¶E.  The GVN supports prevention programs. Prevention efforts
    are focused on education of at-risk populations, vocational
    training, micro-credit programs, and other poverty
    alleviation programs.  More resources would be readily
    welcomed by those agencies involved in prevention.  GVN
    agencies have actively sought assistance from the USG and
    other governments to confront the problem.

    ¶F.  The UN agencies in Hanoi, led by UNICEF, UNDP, and
    UNODCP, have undertaken efforts to establish a strategic
    working group to pull together GVN, NGO, IO, and individual
    donor governments to coordinate efforts on trafficking in
    persons in Vietnam.  UNICEF has also worked to facilitate
    cooperation between Vietnamese and Chinese authorities to
    combat trafficking.  UNICEF has also worked extensively with
    MOLISA, MPS, the Border Guards Command, and the MOJ on
    various anti-trafficking projects.  Individual NGOs and
    international organizations cooperate on specific projects
    around the country.  For example, IOM conducted a nation-
    wide education campaign in concert with GVN agencies and
    international actors such as UNICEF.  IOM is currently
    partnered with the Women's Union and the CPFC in a number of
    provinces to provide rehabilitation assistance for
    returnees.  MOLISA has partnered with UNDP and ILO on two
    large regional anti-trafficking projects.  Small, domestic
    NGO-like organizations exist, and a few have anti-
    trafficking activities.  However, no legal framework exists
    yet permitting the formal establishment of domestic NGO's.
    Therefore, these groups work primarily with international
    entities and are not able to cooperate or interact
    effectively with official GVN agencies.

    ¶G.  It is difficult for the GVN adequately to monitor its
    borders.  Vietnam has a long and generally sparsely
    populated land borders with China, Laos, and Cambodia,
    making it easy for traffickers to evade border detection.
    Resources, rugged terrain, and a long-standing border
    dispute with Cambodia also limit the GVN's border monitoring
    efforts.  Land border posts lack computer equipment and
    often do not have telephones or radios.

    ¶H.  The Prime Minister issued a directive in 1997
    instructing specific ministries (listed in B above) to
    combat trafficking of women and children overseas and
    assigning them specific responsibilities.  While this
    arrangement has produced results (see 23. G), observers
    inside and outside the GVN note there is room for further
    improvement.  The directive designated MOLISA as the focal
    point; for a time it appeared that this gave MOLISA policy
    leadership, but in practice, this did not happen.  MOLISA
    was generally unresponsive to efforts to broaden the focus
    beyond trafficking in women and children for the purpose of
    sexual exploitation.  Rather than fostering comprehensive,
    coordinated interagency work, MOLISA appeared to favor an
    approach that ensured that all agencies worked only in their
    special areas of competency.  In particular, MOLISA was said
    to resist working with the MOJ, which was charged by the
    Prime Minister with drafting laws and regulations on
    trafficking.  MOJ and other GVN entities have exhibited a
    broader approach to trafficking; MOLISA has now also begun
    to show interest in a more flexible and coordinated
    approach.  MOJ, with support from the National Assembly, has
    begun studying possible legislation and policy changes on
    trafficking in persons.  The MPS has actively enforced
    existing laws on trafficking in women and children.  The
    Border Guards exercised responsibility for receiving and
    repatriating returning victims.  Other GVN entities have
    worked with MOLISA on prevention and rehabilitation.  (Note:
    This problem of inter-ministerial cooperation is not limited
    or unique to trafficking issues. End note)

    The GVN is conducting a five-year evaluation report of the
    Prime Minister's 1997 decree on combating trafficking in
    women and children.  MPS sources stated that one of the
    recommendations of the evaluation will be more clearly to
    assign a GVN entity to be in charge of overall efforts to
    combat trafficking.  Other sources said that this
    organization could be a Deputy Prime Minister-led
    interministerial steering committee.  Another possibility
    would be to add responsibility for trafficking to an
    existing interministerial steering committee responsible for
    prostitution, illegal drugs, and HIV/AIDS.

    The GVN and the CPV have concentrated considerable attention
    on the problem of corruption.  While the GVN does not have a
    specific anti-corruption task force, such a body does exist
    within the CPV.  The largest corruption-related trial in SRV
    history, centered on an organized crime gang in Ho Chi Minh
    City, began on February 25, 2003.  In all, 155 persons were
    indicted, including two Central Committee members (one a
    Deputy Minister of Public Security and another the head of
    Voice of Vietnam Radio), as well as the second-ranking
    prosecutor in Vietnam and over a dozen lower ranking law
    enforcement officials.  Charges include murder, bribery,
    gambling, drug trafficking, alien smuggling, and extortion.
    Even before the trial began, the CPV and GVN stripped the
    two Central Committee members from their party and
    governmental posts.

    The GVN agreed to accept Swedish ODA for an anti-corruption
    project in September 2002, the first time the GVN has
    allowed foreigners directly to address the subject.

    Post's contacts almost uniformly indicate that corruption
    facilitates trafficking, but reject the notion that
    corruption drives trafficking or that trafficking is
    actually encouraged by GVN officials.

    ¶I.  The GVN has been an active participant in multinational
    and international conferences on trafficking and related
    issues where trafficking is discussed.  In 2001, the GVN
    sent a delegation to the Second World Congress against the
    Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama.  In
    February 2002, Vietnam was represented at the Vice Foreign
    Minister level at the regional conference on People
    Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons in Bali, Indonesia.
    The UNDP and ILO regional anti-trafficking projects both
    contain components intended to improve regional cooperation
    on this issue, and the GVN officials working in this area
    support these efforts.  GVN officials working on trafficking
    visited China in 2001 and visited Cambodia in March 2002 to
    share information and improve cooperative efforts to
    prevent, monitor, and control trafficking.  GVN officials
    participated in UNICEF-sponsored meetings with their Chinese
    counterparts in March and November 2002 to increase cross-
    border law enforcement cooperation on trafficking in
    persons.  Law enforcement officials on the border meet
    regularly with their Chinese counterparts to exchange
    information and coordinate activities.

    ¶J.  As noted in 16. G, the GVN has developed a five-year
    plan of action for 2001-2005 against prostitution that
    addresses some trafficking-related problems.  A one-year
    progress report will be available soon.  MOLISA is also
    discussing a more specific plan of action against
    trafficking.  This plan could dovetail with creation of new
    working group on trafficking in persons.  (See 17. H.)
    However, MOLISA has not yet consulted several other
    ministries, including the MOJ, and will need them to weigh
    in.  Nonetheless, some observers predict that the plan could
    be completed by the end of 2003.

    ¶K.  MOLISA is responsible for prevention and rehabilitation
    policies, MPS and the Supreme People's Procuracy for law
    enforcement and prosecution, and MOJ for legislation.
    Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense also
    have roles, as do some smaller government entities.

    ¶18.  Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers:

    ¶A.  Article 119 of the Criminal Code prohibits and
    prescribes punishment for trafficking in women; Article 120
    prohibits and prescribes punishment for trafficking in
    children.  There is no law that specifically prohibits
    trafficking in men; however, Chapter VI, Article 24,
    Paragraph 1 of Decree No. 152/1999/ND-CP could be used to
    discipline traffickers who recruit or send men abroad to
    work for "illegitimate profits" or illegal purposes.  In
    severe cases, this decree contemplates criminal punishment
    but does not set out a specific sentence for such a crime.
    Save the Children recently published a comparative study on
    the legal provisions of Mekong sub-region countries on
    trafficking in women and children, and noted that, according
    to Vietnamese law, "offenders" must have "traded" victims.
    It also reported that Vietnam's law does not "deem that the
    offense of human trafficking can be committed even with the
    victim's consent," as do the laws of Cambodia and Thailand.
    Therefore, Vietnamese anti-trafficking laws may not include
    cases where the victim went willingly, but, for instance,
    later was unable to leave, or was placed in debt bondage.
    In practice, GVN authorities nonetheless seem to treat at
    least some such cases as trafficking anyway.  For instance,
    MPS is investigating persons who allegedly tricked women
    into going to Malaysia in 2002 under the aegis of labor
    export, only to find themselves forced into prostitution.

    The GVN revised its Marriage and Family law in 2002 to curb
    abuse of marriage, recognition of parents and children, or
    adoption for the purpose of selling, buying or exploitation
    of for labor, sexual or other commercial purposes (Ref C).
    While much of the new law aimed at tightening up
    international adoption procedures, it adds another measure
    to prosecute some human traffickers and prohibits private
    marriage brokerage services that have been used as a
    mechanism for trafficking to Taiwan and elsewhere.

    The GVN also tightened up regulations on labor exports (Ref
    D), another mechanism that has been exploited for
    trafficking.  Companies are now required to have 7 billion
    VN dong (about US$455,000) in registered capital, have at
    least seven managers with tertiary education and foreign
    language abilities, have their own training facilities and
    connections to an independent training facility, and provide
    workers training, according to explicit GVN requirements.
    The GVN is reviewing contracts between workers and labor
    export companies and has reduced fees that companies can
    charge to workers.  It has also mandated training for
    company managers and representatives in relevant host
    country and Vietnamese laws.  The GVN is continuing to
    review its labor export programs to tighten them up further.

    The GVN is also studying the legal changes required to
    ratify and implement the Optional Protocol Against
    Trafficking in Women and Children of the TNOC.

    ¶B.  The penalties for trafficking in women are 2-7 years in
    prison, with heavier sentences of 5-20 years for more
    serious crimes involving organized criminal activity
    (literally, "in an organized manner"), trafficking abroad,
    trafficking more than one person, or a repeat offence.  The
    penalties for trafficking in children are 3-10 years, with
    heavier sentences of 10-20 years or life for more serious
    crimes involving organized criminal activity, trafficking
    abroad, for "despicable or inhuman" purposes, for
    prostitution, for trafficking more than one child, or a
    repeat offense.  No changes were made in 2002.

    ¶C.  The penalty for rape is 2-7 years imprisonment, or 5-10
    years if it involves a victim age 16-18.  If it involves
    organized criminal activity, gang rape, a repeat offense,
    incest, or multiple victims, as well as if it results in 31%-
    60% impairment of the victim, or if she is impregnated, the
    penalty is 7-15 years.  Rape can be a capital offense if the
    victim commits suicide as a result, is infected with HIV, or
    is left more than 61% impaired.  Rape of a child 13-16 years
    old results in a 7-15 year sentence.  Any sexual intercourse
    with a child under 13 years of age is considered rape; the
    offender can be sentenced to 12 years to life or to death.
    If the rape of a child 13-16 involves incest, a ward of the
    offender, results in 31-60% impairment of the victim, or
    impregnating the victim, the sentence is 12-20 years.  If
    the rape of a child 13-16 years old involves organized
    criminal activity, a repeat offense, gang rape, impairment
    greater that 61%, commission of a crime when the offender
    knows he is HIV positive, or leads to the suicide of the
    victim, the punishment is 20 years to life or death.  No
    changes were made in 2002.

    ¶D.  See the statistics listed in the overview section
    concerning court cases.  Unfortunately, these data are not
    disaggregated according to numbers arrested and indicted.
    Post has no information concerning the number of
    convictions, although we presume it is high based on usual
    judicial practice.  Nor has the GVN made available
    information on the penalties actually applied to those
    convicted.  UNODCP has discussed the possibility of
    collecting crime statistics in an Office on Crime Statistics
    in the Supreme People's Procuracy.

    ¶E.  See 16. F.  MPS Criminal Police have reported that they
    have detected increasing organized crime involvement in
    trafficking in persons, but such criminal groups appear to
    be specialized cells with informal links to other groups.
    Most of them are not transnational in nature, but some have
    used travel agencies, employment services, and marriage
    brokerage services as fronts.  Based on this concern, the
    GVN outlawed private marriage brokerage services during
    ¶2002.  The GVN also reviewed and tightened licensing
    requirements for overseas employment services.  IOM reports
    that anecdotal evidence suggests traffickers are often
    individual brokers, who link up with more organized groups
    outside Vietnam.  DEA confirms that most Vietnamese
    traffickers are independent agents or working in small
    unorganized groups.  There is little evidence that GVN
    officials are actively involved in trafficking.  There is
    little or no information on where profits from trafficking
    in persons are being channeled.

    ¶F.  The GVN actively investigates cases of trafficking that
    come to its attention.  GVN authorities have worked with
    foreign law enforcement officials, including the INS and the
    Australian Federal Police, to investigate and interdict
    trafficking cases, including fraudulent adoptions.
    According an INS official in Vietnam, this cooperation has
    progressed so that not only do GVN officials react to tips
    and queries, but also seek advice and collaboration on
    suspected cases.  Cooperation continued to improve in 2002.
    However, GVN authorities apparently do not pursue detection
    of trafficking in persons with the same intensity as they do
    other crimes, such as narcotics trafficking, that appear to
    them more clearly to threaten their national interests.  In
    large part, this is because the magnitude of the problem is
    not, in the authorities' judgment, great enough to warrant
    the resources such an effort would require.

    Vietnamese law enforcement does not use special
    investigative techniques in trafficking investigations.  The
    GVN takes the position that such techniques are not
    specifically authorized under Vietnamese law.  In November
    2000, the GVN changed the law to permit the use of such
    techniques, but only for narcotics investigations, effective
    June 1, 2001.

    ¶G.  The limited training for GVN officials on investigation
    of trafficking in persons has been given primarily to border
    guards.

    ¶H.  Yes.  GVN authorities work closely with countries within
    the INTERPOL and ASEANPOL frameworks.  Vietnam has entered
    into bilateral agreements with China and Australia
    concerning cooperation in combating crimes including
    trafficking in woman and children.  Significant cooperation
    has yet to materialize with China, although observers state
    both sides genuinely appear to be working toward that goal.
    Vietnam also cooperates bilaterally with a number of its
    neighbors via anti-crime agreements, extradition treaties,
    and mutual criminal justice assistance undertakings, all of
    which could apply to pursuing trafficking cases.  The GVN
    also works with a number of international organizations,
    such as UNICEF, UNDP, and ECPAT, to increase protection
    provided to women and children.

    ¶I.  Post is not aware of that Vietnam has been asked to
    extradite persons charged with trafficking in other
    countries, whether third country nationals or its own
    citizens.  Vietnamese law does not prohibit extradition of
    its own nationals.

    ¶J.  See 16. H.

    ¶K.  The GVN and the CPV have formally made fighting official
    corruption a priority.  (See 17. H.)  Despite increasingly
    high profile prosecutions, Vietnam's anti-corruption
    campaign is not yet highly credible, comprehensive, or
    effective.  Contacts in and out of the GVN, as well as some
    media reports, indicate that individual low- and mid-level
    officials have at times facilitated trafficking.  There are
    anecdotal reports of GVN officials caught and tried for
    involvement in trafficking cases, but Post has no systematic
    or detailed information to substantiate such reports.  MOJ
    officials noted four such cases in 2002, but admitted that
    their knowledge is incomplete.  Certainly, as in other areas
    involving corrupt officials, more can and should be done
    systematically to pursue and prevent cases of official
    involvement.

    ¶L.  Vietnam ratified Convention 182 on November 17, 2000.

    Vietnam is studying the steps necessary to ratify ILO
    Conventions 29 and 105 on forced or compulsory labor.

    Vietnam has ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention
    on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child
    Prostitution, and Child Pornography.

    Vietnam is studying the necessary legal and systematic
    changes to sign and implement the Optional Protocol to
    Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
    Especially Women and Children of the TNOC.

    ¶19.  Protection and Assistance to Victims:

    ¶A.   The GVN provides assistance to some victims of
    trafficking.  The Women's Union and CPFC have established
    rehabilitation programs to help treat, counsel, and
    reintegrate trafficking victims, and receive some
    international technical and financial support.  (Note:  The
    USG funds IOM assistance to several such centers. The USG-
    funded ILO-IPEC Child Labor project includes a small rescue
    initiative aimed at trafficked children in urban areas. End
    note)  These organizations clearly want to expand their
    efforts, but have only limited domestic funding.
    Independent GVN agencies like the CPFC are seriously under-
    funded.  Mass organizations, like the Women's Union,
    typically must generate most of their own funds through
    dues, economic activities, or securing funding from foreign
    organizations.  Therefore, the CPFC and the Women's Union
    will likely continue to seek additional domestic and foreign
    funding to pursue victim protection, rehabilitation, and
    reintegration.  Services provided (for some returnees from
    Cambodia and China) included temporary shelter, vocational
    training, small loans to start businesses, medical
    treatment, and sometimes counseling.  As part of its planned
    anti-trafficking project, the Asia Foundation will work with
    the MOJ's Legal Assistance Department to provide legal
    counseling to trafficking victims.

    However, some GVN officials tend to focus on engaging in
    prostitution as a "social evil" rather than viewing the
    prostitutes as victims.

    ¶B.   The GVN and mass organizations such as the Women's
    Union have provided in-kind assistance to rehabilitation
    projects funded by international donors.  Generally,
    assistance flows the other way, from foreign NGOs and donors
    to GVN entities. In general, the GVN's and mass
    organizations' in-kind contributions include human resources
    and logistical support and occasionally office space.  The
    Women's Union has used some of its own resources to fund
    prevention and victim rehabilitation work, but generally
    waits until the international funding is no longer available
    and then uses its very limited funds to sustain the efforts.

    ¶C.   In general, the GVN seeks to assist trafficking
    victims, and it does not generally treat victims as
    criminals.  Sometimes victims are prosecuted because of
    engagement in prostitution, but as noted above, prosecution
    usually is focused on women who voluntarily engage in
    commercial sex related activities.  In Vietnam, those found
    guilty of engaging in prostitution are not jailed with
    criminals.  Rather, MOLISA runs 40-plus facilities, commonly
    referred to as rehabilitation or re-education centers, where
    prostitutes receive medical treatment, vocational training,
    and "improved social values."  Generally, those caught
    engaging in prostitution -- voluntarily or as victims of
    trafficking -- are sent to these centers for 3 months to 1
    year, and they are not free to leave until the designated
    term is up.  MOLISA officials have pointed out that many
    choose to stay well beyond these periods because they do not
    want to return to prostitution but are uncertain of their
    ability to support themselves outside or are hesitant to
    return to their home communities.  They also noted that the
    vast majority voluntarily engaged in commercial sex work.
    While some GVN officials appeared aware that trafficked
    women, by contrast, did not enter prostitution voluntarily
    and are victims, GVN officials have justified the obligatory
    terms such victims can be required to spend in such centers
    on public health grounds, saying that 80% of prostitutes
    entering these centers are infected with one or more
    sexually transmitted diseases and must be treated.

    While no outside experts with whom emboffs have had contact
    believe that these camps are effective, much less
    appropriate, for victims of trafficking, experts have
    pointed out that no commercial sex workers are imprisoned
    under GVN policy.  Nor do they have criminal records.
    Trafficking victims are not immediately returned to their
    communities, where they would likely be treated as outcasts
    and run the risk of being trafficked again.  The experts
    would much prefer to see more victims' assistance programs,
    such as those run by the Women's Union and the CPFC.  The
    experts noted that the more experience GVN authorities have
    with victim's assistance programs, the more the authorities
    prefer to put trafficking victims into such programs.  But
    without sufficient funds to expand these programs, GVN
    authorities have few alternatives to the above-mentioned
    institutions.

    ¶D.   We are not aware whether victims are encouraged to
    assist in the investigation or prosecution of cases.
    Technically, victims have a number of means to seek civil
    action against their traffickers.  There are also means for
    victims to pursue criminal action.  Vietnamese law expressly
    requires criminal offenders to compensate their victims.
    Post is not aware of any case in which a victim's access to
    such legal redress has been impeded.  (See 18. A. for
    efforts to provide legal assistance to victims.)  Experts
    have observed that trafficking victims are often reluctant
    to speak to police about the crimes committed against them,
    however.  NGOs have received commitments from the Women's
    Union and MPS's Criminal Police to receive training for
    community-level personnel in interviewing techniques to
    encourage victims to report crimes that they might be
    unwilling to speak about.

    ¶E.   The GVN, in concert with NGOs, provides some shelter,
    such as temporary housing, for some returnees from China and
    Cambodia.  Article 19 of the Criminal Procedure Code allows
    a closed trial when necessary to protect victims' privacy,
    but there are no other legal protections for victims or
    witnesses.  We are not aware of any case of a witness being
    threatened.

    ¶F.   Some GVN officials receive training on how to assist
    victims.  However, because training funding is scarce, the
    achievements of such training are limited.  Vietnamese
    embassies and consulates abroad are charged with the
    protection of Vietnamese citizens in their jurisdictions.
    The GVN continues to seek to expand training to foreign
    embassy and consulate personnel.

    ¶G. Yes, the GVN provides assistance to victims as described
    above.

    ¶H.   Radda Barnen (Save the Children-Sweden) and Save the
    Children-UK work on public education, advocacy, and
    assistance to trafficked children.  CARE and Family Health
    International help provide assistance to trafficked persons
    who have HIV.  The Asia Foundation initiated an anti-
    trafficking project and has applied for G/TIP funding to
    expand it to other provinces in Vietnam.  While not NGOs,
    IOM, ILO, UNDP, UNODCP, and UNICEF are actively providing
    assistance to the GVN in trafficking in persons, some of
    which is supported through USG funding.  A domestic quasi-
    NGO, the Center for Reproductive and Family Health, works in
    the prevention and victims' assistance areas and is actively
    soliciting international funds to do more.  As with all NGO
    and international donor activities in Vietnam, cooperation
    with local officials depends on long, patient relationship
    building.  Several organizations, such as IOM, have
    succeeded in identifying and developing close working
    contacts with key community leaders, such as Women's Union
    representatives in key border provinces.

    End response to questions.
    Burghardt

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