Traffickers subject victims to forced labor in construction, fishing, agriculture, mining, maritime industries, logging, and manufacturing, primarily in Taiwan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Laos, Japan, and to a lesser extent, some parts of Europe and the UK (including in nail salons and on cannabis farms). The government did not offer foreign victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face retribution or hardship. Despite continued reports of official complicity, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials complicit in trafficking offenses. ... That source is now very out of date – the 2019 Department of State Report states that Vietnam “identified significantly fewer victims than in previous years” and “decreased law enforcement efforts,” and downgrades Vietnam … International observers reported government officials often blamed Vietnamese citizens for their exploitative conditions abroad or suggested victims inflate abuses to avoid immigration violations. The government did not report if it addressed previous reports of local and provincial government officials employing practices that could be re-traumatizing to victims, including limiting shelter residents’ freedom of movement. MoLISA operated a 24-hour hotline for trafficking victims; authorities reported receiving approximately 2,010 calls to this hotline (2700 in 2017) and referring 30 cases to NGO and government services (65 cases referred in 2017). **** US Department of State, 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report. There were continued reports of forced labor of individuals detained in government-run drug treatment centers. The government did not report how it allocated these funds. In 2019, the government reported it had ceased the practice of subjecting drug users to forced labor in its 105 rehabilitation centers. Local and provincial government officials at times did not demonstrate a clear understanding of victim identification, including in some cases by conflating it with the confirmation of official identity documents. Victim identification and assistance procedures remained cumbersome, slow, and ineffective. During the reporting period, it continued to implement the third phase of the 2016-2020 National Anti-Trafficking Action Plan (NAP); however, civil society reported progress under the NAP slowed due to the MPS reorganization. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL), the national trade union under the direction of Vietnam’s Communist Party, took steps to prevent exploitation of Vietnamese workers abroad. The government continued efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Traffickers increasingly exploit girls from ethnic minority communities in the northwest highlands, including in sex trafficking and domestic servitude, by channeling their criminal activities through the traditional practice of bride kidnapping. Disparate government bodies continued to report discrepant, overlapping, or incomplete data on anti-trafficking law enforcement and victim identification, and authorities often did not disaggregate trafficking offenses from possible migrant smuggling cases. Despite some reports of official complicity, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking offenses; however, corruption and official complicity, especially with respect to labor export enterprises, remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. The law provided compensation for victims, and the government reported victims received compensation in 16 of 20 of the publicly reported trafficking cases during the year. The Vietnamese government commenced a large scale restructuring of the MPS, merging its Staff Department (C42) responsible for anti-trafficking policies and procedures with the Criminal Police Department (C45) responsible for trafficking operations. Civil society reported while the government made efforts to translate campaign materials into regional languages to increase awareness, many at-risk populations found the information abstract and difficult to understand. The law protected victims from prosecution for unlawful acts traffickers coerced them to commit, but NGOs reported victims were less likely to come forward about their abuses in a judicial setting due to fears they may face arrest or deportation, and returned victims were afraid of being arrested for crossing the border without documentation. Article 150 of the penal code criminalized labor trafficking and sex trafficking of adults and prescribed penalties of five to 10 years’ imprisonment and fines of 20 million to 100 million Vietnamese dong (VND) ($860 to $4,320). • Expand training for social workers, first responders, and the judiciary on victim-centered approaches to working with victims of trafficking, including trauma-informed care. Local and provincial government officials at times employed practices that could be re-traumatizing to victims of trafficking. But worst of all, the crime robs human beings of their freedom and their dignity. The government increased efforts to prevent trafficking. In 2018, authorities reported identifying 490 victims of trafficking (670 victims in 2017, 1,128 victims in 2016). Civil society previously reported Vietnamese victims who migrated via irregular means, were involved in criminal activity as a result of their trafficking, or had criticized the Vietnamese government, feared reprisals from authorities. The Ministry of Public Security walks a “fine line” between raising public awareness about human trafficking and “presenting a good face that they are in control”, noted Brosowski. Sex trafficking in Vietnam is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Vietnam's Public Security Ministry has said it collaborates with its Chinese counterpart to fight human trafficking rings. Vietnamese men and women migrate abroad for work independently or through state-owned, private, or joint-stock labor recruitment companies. Despite ongoing reports of official complicity, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials complicit in trafficking offenses. That’s why we must pursue an end to the scourge of human trafficking. A lack of interagency coordination and unfamiliarity among some provincial officials with anti-trafficking law and victim protection roles and responsibilities continued to impede anti-trafficking efforts. The government decreased law enforcement efforts but improved its anti-trafficking training. 0. There were reports of children as young as six producing garments under conditions of forced labor in small privately owned garment factories and informal workshops, and that children as young as 12 worked while confined in government-run rehabilitation centers. Some traffickers pose as police officers on social media networks to gain victims’ trust. Traffickers increasingly use the internet, gaming sites, and particularly social media to lure potential victims into vulnerable situations; men often entice young women and girls with online dating relationships and persuade them to move abroad, then subject them to forced labor or sex trafficking. Foreign victims, including children, remained at high risk of deportation without screening or referral to protective services. Despite reports of official complicity, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials complicit in trafficking offenses. Some recruitment companies are unresponsive to workers’ requests for assistance in situations of exploitation, and some charge excessive fees that trap workers in debt bondage. Deputy Spokesperson of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pham Thu Hang. Civil society previously reported this led to confusion on how to treat cases involving 16- and 17-year-old children, especially for cases involving labor trafficking, resulting in victims being treated as adults. The procuracies (prosecutor’s office) reported initiating the prosecution of 194 defendants for trafficking offenses (245 in 2017, 295 in 2016, 442 in 2015, 472 in 2014) and the court system secured 213 convictions (244 in 2017, 275 in 2016); sentences ranged from less than three years to 20 years’ imprisonment, however some prison sentences were suspended. NGOs and the media in Japan reported Vietnamese workers pay $7,000 to third party brokers in Vietnam before entering the TITP program and then often must pay $4,000 to $5,000 if they break their contracts, trapping them in debt bondage. Learn more about quality higher-education opportunities in the U.S. that you will not find anywhere else in the world. Civil society reported that this led to confusion on how to treat cases involving 16- and 17-year-old children —especially for cases involving labor trafficking—and resulted in victims being treated as adults in nearly all cases. The law protected victims from prosecution for unlawful acts traffickers coerced them to commit, but NGOs previously reported victims were less likely to come forward about their abuses in a judicial setting due to fears they may face arrest or deportation for crossing the border without documentation. Human Trafficking in Vietnam. Over one and a half years the research investigated the issue of human trafficking from Vietnam to the The government reported training, at times in coordination with international organizations, 153 law enforcement officials on Articles 150 and 151; 136 border guards and Women’s Union officials; 128 interagency officials on combating child trafficking; 410 interagency officials on Vietnamese anti-trafficking regulations; and nearly 300 diplomatic and consular officers. International observers noted Vietnamese government officials sometimes considered the exploitation of Vietnamese workers abroad to be the host countries’ responsibility and beyond their purview. Inconsistent with international law, Article 150 applied to children between the ages of 16 and 17 years old and required a demonstration of force, fraud, or coercion to constitute a sex trafficking offense; therefore, it did not criminalize all forms of child sex trafficking. Traffickers force children into street hawking and begging in major urban centers. June 8, 2013 by myvietnam0. For the seventh consecutive year, the government did not prosecute any suspected traffickers under labor trafficking provisions of the anti-trafficking law. The SituationVietnam is a source and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and conditions of forced labor. The victim identification process remained overly cumbersome and complex, requiring sign-off from multiple ministries before victims could be formally identified and assisted. With assistance from an international organization, the government submitted to the National Assembly a revised law governing contract-based Vietnamese overseas workers; the law remained pending at the close of the reporting period. Therefore Vietnam remained on the Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year. A steering committee chaired by a deputy prime minister, with the minister and a vice minister of public security as deputy chairs, continued to direct Vietnam’s anti-trafficking efforts. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA), with donor funding, operated a 24-hour hotline for trafficking victims and victims of other crimes; authorities reported receiving approximately 2,520 calls in 2019, compared with 2,010 calls in 2018 and 2,700 in 2017. Join my panel! • Invite independent verification of the termination of forced labor within drug treatment centers and provide results of such verification. Although trafficking-related corruption continues to occur, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of officials complicit in human trafficking offenses. The government did not take steps to deny entry of known U.S. sex offenders. Posted by myvietnam2. These efforts included disseminating implementing guidelines for Articles 150 and 151 of the penal code, operating large-scale awareness campaigns in communities vulnerable to trafficking, and government facilitated trainings for Consular officers, police, and other relevant agencies to combat trafficking. The 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report highlights the successes achieved and the remaining challenges before us on this important global issue. There are increasing reports of Vietnamese labor trafficking victims in continental Europe, the Middle East, and in Pacific maritime industries. The government had common victim identification criteria as part of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Human Trafficking and its own 2014 procedure for victim identification; however, neither the criteria nor the procedures were reported to be proactively or widely employed, including among women arrested for commercial sex acts, migrant workers returning from abroad, and child laborers. Authorities reported distributing 25,000 copies of awareness materials in border areas and 900 handbooks in particularly vulnerable communities. Civil society organizations reported assisting 167 victims of trafficking. The MFA organized training courses on human trafficking prevention and combatting in the forms of periodic consular affairs training courses for officials prior to their postings to Vietnamese representative missions abroad. While the merging of these departments could potentially improve the flow of information and interagency coordination, civil society reported this reshuffle, coupled with extremely high turnover within the MPS, significantly slowed law enforcement efforts. Vietnam. In partnership with an NGO, the VGCL began working to form an association of migrant Vietnamese workers in South Korea to better inform Vietnamese migrant workers about their rights and services available. Will you help make a change? Some recruitment companies are unresponsive to workers’ requests for assistance in situations of exploitation, and some charge excessive fees that trap workers in debt bondage. Labor recruitment firms—most affiliated with state-owned enterprises—and unlicensed brokers reportedly charged workers seeking overseas employment higher fees than the law allows; those workers incurred high debts and were at heightened risk for forced labor, including through debt-based coercion. MoLISA conducted an inspection, in coordination with public security agencies, and discovered 91 cases related to violations in the recruitment of labor for overseas employment and found 55 organizations and individuals without relevant permits. However, civil society reported callers have difficulty when speaking with an operator with a different regional dialect. The government did not report extradition data. "Vietnam is considered a hotspot for human trafficking and illegal migration among countries in the Mekong Subregion, with estimated profits of tens of billions of U.S. dollars per year," Le Van Nhan, deputy head of the anti-human trafficking division under the Public … But it has not said how many people it is able to rescue each year. During the reporting period, the Ministry of Information and Communications directed state-run media to air more than 700 documentaries and news stories to raise public awareness on trafficking. Violators received administrative sanctions. This joint report by Asylos and ARC Foundation addresses an information gap on the topic of victims of trafficking returned to Vietnam from the UK. Deputy Chief of Mission Christopher Klein, Federal Assistance and Scholarship Programs, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), USAID Launches New Project to Support Vietnam’s Commitment to End HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis by 2030, The National Tuberculosis Program Partners with USAID to Implement a New Strategy to End TB in Vietnam, The United States Announces Assistance to Advance Clean Energy Deployment in Vietnam, Joint Statement on United States, Japan and Vietnam Cooperation to Support Vietnam’s Energy Transitions Through LNG Utilization, Consular Sections Closed on January 1, 2021, Consular Sections Closed on December 24 and December 25, Ambassador Kritenbrink’s Remarks for the 25th Anniversary Gala Events, Ambassador Kritenbrink’s Remarks at 25th Anniversary Event Hosted by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), STATEMENT BY MORGAN ORTAGUS, SPOKESPERSON, Remarks by Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun at the Embassy of Vietnam’s Virtual 25th Anniversary Celebration, The United States’s Commitment and International Law in the South China Sea, The United States and Vietnam Strengthen Partnership to Address War Legacies, The United States Agency for International Development Announces Completion of its Green Annamites Project, U.S. APNSA Robert C. O’Brien’s Visit to Vietnam, The United States Announces Assistance to Help Vietnam Improve its Social Health Insurance Implementation, Secretary Pompeo’s Meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, International Religious Freedom Report for 2016 – Vietnam, Peace Corps in Vietnam – U.S. Embassy and U.S. Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City (January 5, 2021), Upcoming Events for the Public at the American Center Hanoi. Some Vietnamese women who travel abroad for internationally brokered marriages or jobs in restaurants, massage parlors, and karaoke bars—including to China, Cyprus, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Taiwan—are subjected to domestic servitude or sex trafficking. Informally, MPS officials estimated the vast majority of identified cases involved transnational trafficking. 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