Fighting Human Trafficking in Vietnam
In Vietnam, human trafficking may take the form of arranged marriages that frequently result in women becoming domestic slaves rather than wives. Other survivors find themselves in prostitution instead of in the factory job they were promised. Lack of information and education perpetuate the cycle human trafficking.
Vietnam Aid
Assisting Vietnam
Join ActionAid and support Vietnam’s agricultural, educational and women’s empowerment initiatives.
Donate Now
ActionAid works throughout Vietnam to raise awareness about the dangers of trafficking and explain to women that they may be putting themselves in a danger by agreeing to marry a man they do not know or by taking a job they know little about. Many of the women and girls leaving Vietnam in search of a brighter future arrive in Cambodia or Taiwan only to realize they have been deceived. ActionAid and its local Vietnamese partners to combat “cross border” trafficking, as well as providing reintegration services to women and children who return to Vietnam.
ActionAid’s partner in North Vietnam, the Women’s Union, has actively tried to stop the spread of trafficking. Education is an important step in the process. Although 94 percent of the Vietnamese population is literate and school attendance rates are relatively high, people living in remote, mountainous areas such as Ha Giang are unable to read or write. The illiteracy rate is particularly high in ethnic minority communities such as the H'mong (88 percent) and Dao (75 percent). Women here are twice as likely to be illiterate.
ActionAid helps women learn the skills they need to earn an independent living, making them less susceptible to dubious job offers, money and marriage proposals. Our program teaches skills such as weaving, design, sewing and basket-making.
With the skills in hand, women form their own production line, turning rough sheaves of grass into intricately designed handbags, cushion covers and cloths for sale at local markets. They are proud of all they have achieved.
Ngu Yen Thihong, 23, talks with ActionAid about her experience being trafficked to Taiwan from Tra Vinh, southern Vietnam.
Copyright © Jack Picone/ActionAid
Nestled near the southernmost tip of Vietnam is the Hoa Thinh village. A group of enthusiastic women gather in a local meeting house to discuss and learn about the dangers of trafficking.
Thirty-one-year-old Kim Thi Phu Vinh talks about what she has learned and can pass on to her daughters when they are older.
"I have learned how to prevent being lured by someone; that often girls are sent to brothels and not given the work they have been promised," she says. "I will tell my daughters that if someone approaches them with an offer of a job or money, then they need to ask for detailed information, not just accept someone’s word for it. Things are not always what they seem."
Ten-year-old Son Thi Thien has been attending the group with her mother for the past six months. Already she has learned how to protect herself from trafficking what will protect her from traffickers.
"If someone offered me money to go somewhere with them, I would tell them I don’t like money," she says simply.
With the right information and the confidence, the future can be brighter for young girls threatened by human trafficking.