Remarkable changes

Vietnam's efforts and commitments in preventing and combating human trafficking in recent times have been internationally recognized at international forums or bilateral dialogues on human rights with countries such as the US, EU, Australia...

Illustration photo. (Source: cartoonmovement)

The tasks and solutions set out in the Program on preventing and combating human trafficking for the 2021-2025 period and orientation to 2030 are considered to be breakthrough and comprehensive, demonstrating Vietnam's determination to address this issue through multilateral international cooperation.

The US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP 2023) released on June 15, 2023, assessed the human trafficking situation in 188 countries and regions around the world, in which it upgraded Vietnam's ranking from Group 3 to "Group 2 to Watch", reflecting Vietnam's positive results in preventing and combating human trafficking, especially investigating and prosecuting human trafficking crimes as well as strengthening international cooperation in preventing and combating human trafficking.

The effectiveness of anti-human trafficking programs

The consistent viewpoint of the Party and State of Vietnam is to recognize, protect and ensure human rights, especially those of women and children. In the programs to prevent and combat human trafficking at all stages, the participation of the entire political system, ministries, branches and all people is mobilized, and significant resources are allocated to the implementation of the annual program to prevent and combat human trafficking.

In particular, over the past year, the work of preventing and combating human trafficking has been vigorously implemented by the Government's Steering Committee for Crime Prevention and Control, especially the program and plan for preventing and combating human trafficking in 2022 and 2023; strengthening measures to combat and combat human trafficking domestically and abroad...

According to Decision No. 793/QD-TTg dated May 10, 2016 of the Prime Minister, July 30 was chosen as “National Day for Prevention and Combat of Human Trafficking”. The nationwide campaign to suppress human trafficking crimes (from July 1 to September 30 every year) was widely deployed, establishing, investigating, and discovering many cases and human trafficking rings (both domestically and internationally); promptly completing files, promptly prosecuting, and strictly trying human trafficking criminals in accordance with the law.

In 2022, Vietnamese authorities discovered and investigated 90 cases/247 subjects of human trafficking crimes under the provisions of Article 150 and Article 151 of the Penal Code, identifying 222 victims of human trafficking related to the cases, an increase of 13 cases/98 subjects/72 people compared to the same period in 2021. 58 cases/128 defendants were brought to trial for crimes related to human trafficking.

In the first quarter of 2023 alone, the authorities discovered and investigated 56 cases/150 subjects of human trafficking crimes, identified 118 victims in the cases, an increase of 32 cases/104 subjects compared to the same period in 2022. Received and resolved 93 denunciations, crime reports and recommendations for prosecution related to human trafficking crimes, brought 15/31 defendants to trial.

Along with that, the Ministry of Public Security also organized a summary of the direction of the implementation of the Program on preventing and combating human trafficking in 08 localities, organized an interdisciplinary conference to evaluate and propose solutions to improve the effectiveness of the fight against human trafficking on the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

Since January 2023, relevant ministries and sectors have organized statistics on human trafficking according to the form of the Government's Steering Committee for Crime Prevention and Control, as a basis for building national data on human trafficking prevention and control. Currently, relevant ministries and sectors are researching and building a shared database; coordinating with the International Organization for Migration Mission in Vietnam (IOM) to organize a workshop with domestic and foreign experts on the needs and purposes of collecting data on human trafficking prevention and control.

The work of preventing and combating human trafficking crimes has been given special attention by ministries, departments, and central and local agencies, with prevention being the main policy and the foundation in implementing all aspects of human trafficking prevention and combat. Human trafficking crime prevention has been integrated into the process of implementing economic, cultural, and social development goals... Propaganda and communication on preventing and combating human trafficking have been organized with a variety of contents and forms.

On July 18, 2022, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs signed and implemented the Inter-sectoral Coordination Regulations in the reception, protection, and support of victims of human trafficking. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

Along with the fierce and uncompromising fight against human trafficking crimes, central and local ministries and branches have paid special attention to coordinating the verification, identification, rescue, protection and support of victims of human trafficking quickly, ensuring the rights of victims and following the principle of "taking victims as the center".

Notably, on July 18, 2022, the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs signed and implemented the Inter-sectoral Coordination Regulations in the reception, protection and support of victims of human trafficking, witnessed by representatives of the US Embassy, ​​the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and a number of diplomatic missions and international organizations related to the prevention and combat of human trafficking in Vietnam.

After more than 10 years of implementation, the Law on Prevention and Combating Human Trafficking (2011) has revealed a number of incompatibilities that need to be amended and supplemented. To improve the effectiveness of the fight against human trafficking crimes, Vietnam is actively preparing a dossier to propose the development of a draft Law on Prevention and Combating Human Trafficking (amended).

Along with that, the national population database and citizen identification database have been applied to serve the work of preventing and combating human trafficking crimes; tens of thousands of business establishments with security and order conditions have been inspected to proactively prevent crimes, social evils and human trafficking; border patrols and controls have been strengthened to promptly detect and prevent human trafficking activities abroad.

International and regional cooperation on preventing and combating human trafficking

Due to its transnational nature, human trafficking has become a global problem, one of the non-traditional security challenges of all countries. International cooperation and regional cooperation in preventing and combating human trafficking is an inevitable need.

Regarding multilateral cooperation, Vietnam has signed and is a member of many international conventions and legal documents directly related to the prevention and combat of human trafficking such as: International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, International Convention on the Rights of the Child, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (TOC), ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), ASEAN Action Plan on the Implementation of ACTIP, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children em, supplementing the TOC Convention.

Vietnam is also a party to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration - the first intergovernmental agreement on migration - and has issued a Plan for its implementation, with specific and comprehensive solutions to prevent the risk of human trafficking in international migration.

On August 9, the International Organization for Migration and the Department of Social Evils Prevention and Control under the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs completed a series of workshops to review the mid-term results of the implementation of the Program on preventing and combating human trafficking for the period 2021-2025 in the field of victim protection in Ho Chi Minh City.

In bilateral cooperation, Vietnam has signed and continued to effectively implement mutual legal assistance agreements with many countries around the world, creating an important legal basis for international cooperation in the fight against crime, including human trafficking, especially women and children, such as the Cooperation Agreement between Vietnam and Cambodia (2005), Laos (2010), Thailand (2008), China (2010) and the UK (2009) on preventing and combating human trafficking, including maintaining annual meetings with agencies implementing the agreement, coordinating the organization of peak campaigns to attack and suppress human trafficking crimes. At the same time, Vietnam participated in and signed the Memorandum of Understanding and Action Plan of 06 countries of the Mekong Sub-region (Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, China, Myanmar and Vietnam).

In addition, Vietnam has signed 15 bilateral agreements and 13 mutual legal assistance agreements on crime prevention and combat with other countries, all of which include the prevention and combat of human trafficking. In addition, Vietnam is also implementing cooperation projects within the framework of the ASEAN-ACT Program funded by the Australian Government.

In addition, Vietnam regularly exchanges policies and achievements in preventing human trafficking at the Human Rights Dialogue with the EU, Australia... as well as regular working sessions with a number of foreign representative agencies in Hanoi.

According to the assessment of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the Asia-Pacific region, especially the countries of the Mekong Sub-region (including Vietnam), the situation of human trafficking crimes is very complicated. The number of victims of trafficking is about 11.7 million people (accounting for 70% of the victims of trafficking in the world, of which 55% are women and girls; 45% are men).

International organizations regularly have programs and projects on preventing and combating human trafficking. Vietnam has actively participated in international cooperation in this field through participating in projects such as: "Assessment and proposal for amendments to policies and strategic plans on preventing and combating child sexual abuse for the period 2001-2010"; "Improving policies and laws on preventing and combating child sexual abuse" funded by UNICEF; "Preventing sexual abuse and exploitation of adolescents" project funded by ESCAP...

Vietnam has implemented regional projects on preventing trafficking in women and children, including the Project “Preventing and combating trafficking in women and children in the Mekong sub-region” funded by the Consortium of International Organizations, code RAS/98/H01, and the Regional Project “Preventing and combating trafficking in women and children in the Mekong sub-region” funded by ILO/IPEC.

Both projects focus on information and communication activities, raising awareness; investigating and assessing causes and current situations; building intervention models; vocational training, job creation, and community integration for victims of trafficking... with the common goal of: preventing the development and minimizing the level of trafficking in women and children; and overcoming the consequences of this evil.

At the same time, with the implementation of the above two projects, the Department of Social Evils Prevention and Control, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also piloted the project "Improving community capacity in preventing and combating child sexual abuse" in the two provinces of Dong Thap and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, with funding from the program to prevent and combat prostitution.

At the same time, to prevent the risk of human trafficking in international migration, especially in illegal migration activities, on March 20, 2020, ministries, branches and localities continued to seriously implement the Plan to implement the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (Decision No. 402/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister).

Vietnam is currently preparing a dossier to join the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 2000. This is an effort to prevent the risk of human trafficking through criminal activities of smuggling migrants.

The bilateral agreements that Vietnam has signed are important legal tools for preventing, detecting, investigating, prosecuting and punishing human traffickers.

In the digital age, transnational crimes, including human trafficking, are increasingly sophisticated, seriously threatening efforts to protect human rights, endangering the lives of thousands of people every year in all countries and regions. Strengthening international cooperation and joining hands to prevent human trafficking is a common goal of countries, including Vietnam.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/phong-chong-mua-ban-nguoi-o-viet-nam-nhung-chuyen-bien-dang-ghi-nhan-239246.html