Ky Son district strives to prevent human trafficking

In recent years, local agencies and associations in Ky Son district, Nghe An province have actively launched initiatives to prevent human trafficking, dealing with cases of being tricked into high-paying jobs due to gullibility.

Ky Son has 21 communes and towns with 194 villages. Of which, 11 communes are border communes, 192km of Vietnam - Laos border, complex terrain, difficult transportation. The population of the whole district is more than 70,000 people, of which ethnic minorities account for nearly 95%. The life and awareness of the majority of the people are generally low, the awareness of law compliance of a part of the masses is not high, the poverty rate is 50.9%.

The district has more than 10,000 women's association members, many of whom do not know the common language. The rate of illiteracy and re-illiteracy is still high, accounting for more than 10%. Social evils have not decreased, especially the situation of human trafficking is still potentially complicated.

[caption id="attachment_597241" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] (Illustration photo: Nghe An Television)[/caption]

Efforts to combat human trafficking

In recent years, the authorities of Ky Son district have arrested and prosecuted dozens of human trafficking cases, arrested the subjects and rescued the victims involved. Most of the women in the district who were trafficked were gullible and were tricked into doing high-paying, easy jobs by bad guys. Many women were frustrated with their family problems, their husbands were addicted to drugs, drank, went to jail, or beat them... so they left to get married in China.

According to the Nghe An Women's Union, from 2013 to 2018, in Chieu Luu commune alone, 60 women married men in China, 46 of whom had husbands who were drug addicts or in prison. Many women volunteered to go to earn money to support their families, but were tricked and sold. There were cases where they were sold, then returned to their hometowns and persuaded others to go to China.

In many cases, parents or husbands collude with bad guys to receive money from brokers to send their children away, do not report to authorities or cover up for bad guys, and even when their children are rescued and return, they do not want to accept them and want to give them away... Therefore, the situation of buying and selling women and children in the area is increasingly complicated and sophisticated in many forms.

Model of "Fetal Watch Team"

Huu Kiem is a poor mountainous commune of Ky Son district. This locality has more than 1,000 households with 4 ethnic groups living together, including Thai, Kho Mu, Mong and Kinh.

[caption id="attachment_597243" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] (Illustration photo: VNA)[/caption]

Previously, Huu Kiem was known as a “hot spot” for human trafficking and the sale of fetuses. According to statistics, this locality had 22 cases of selling fetuses, 2 victims were tricked by bad guys and sold abroad.

What they have in common is poverty and limited awareness of society and the law. What is more heartbreaking is that many of the victims of human trafficking return to their hometowns to traffic others, including their own relatives.

To prevent this problem, in 2022, Huu Kiem commune built a pilot model on preventing and combating human trafficking, including commune leaders, police, commune women's union and village chiefs. This special working group is often called the "fetal guard team".

Ms. Lo Thi La - Vice President of the Women's Union of Huu Kiem commune said that because people's awareness is still low and life is still too difficult, many women here have become targets of human traffickers.

Twice a week, the team visits the pregnant women's homes to check on their health and status. Pregnant women in the area are added to the association's monitoring list. When a pregnant woman is confirmed to be pregnant, Ms. La will record her name, age, and months of pregnancy. When the mother and child are both healthy, she will mark them off the monitoring list.

According to Ms. La, every week, Women's Union officials often take the time to visit pregnant women's homes to talk, especially in Dinh Son 1, Dinh Son 2 and Huoi Tho villages, to propagate and grasp their wishes in order to promptly prevent them from selling their fetuses.

Not stopping there, to avoid bad people entering the village to scam and lure women into selling their fetuses, the task force will proactively detect and understand their intentions.

The female officer said that human trafficking criminals often prey on the psychology and finances of families. When approaching pregnant women, they often tell them that selling their child will bring them a large sum of money to cover expenses, and then they will have more money to raise their remaining children better. Therefore, many people do not think twice and agree to sell their children.

In addition to disseminating legal knowledge, Ms. La also guides pregnant women to make bamboo handicrafts to sell to earn extra income for their families while they stay home to give birth.

Mr. La Van Ha - Chairman of the People's Committee of Huu Kiem Commune said that the victims of human trafficking are mainly women of the Kho Mu ethnic group. The reason is that the people have very difficult lives, most of them are poor households, and have a backward lifestyle.

Besides, their awareness of the law is so poor that even selling their own children does not seem to them to be breaking the law.

To eliminate this situation, the local government has established a working group to propagate the law to the people, manage pregnant women or women with small children. At the same time, prevent early the situation of bad guys luring and enticing women to work abroad or give birth.

After more than 3 years of operation, the anti-human trafficking model in Huu Kiem commune has brought high efficiency. To date, there have been no more cases related to human trafficking or fetal trafficking in the area.

Phuong Anh