Reintegration shelter for human trafficking victims in Lao Cai
The Compassion House in Lao Cai offers reintegration services, vocational training, academic schooling, literacy and reproductive health awareness for female human trafficking victims.
Trafficked victims attend a class at the Compassion House. (Photo: thanhnien.vn )
LaoCai (VNS/VNA) -💃 Nguyen ThiVan (not her real name) from the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai waslured across the border to China and sold off as a wife when she was 16 yearsold.
Threemonths later, she escaped from her husband and returned to Vietnam, but it wasnot easy for her back in her hometown where villagers criticised her for goingin the first place. Shedecided to leave her village and move to a reintegration shelter which was alsoa home for human trafficking survivors in Lao Cai. LaoCai province, located on the border with China, is a hot spot for humantrafficking. Between2015 and October 2019, the province welcomed home 436 trafficking victims fromChina. Mostof the victims are forced to work as prostitutes for no money, while others aresent to labour in the farms or forests unpaid. Others go to work in Chinalegally then change jobs with the promise of higher salaries, but end uptrapped by the traffickers, according to local authorities. Theirrefuge, the Compassion House, is supported by the Pacific Links Foundation, andoffers reintegration services, vocational training, academic schooling,literacy and reproductive health awareness for female human traffickingvictims. It'snot just about accommodation; the home is a place where human trafficking survivorswho risk their lives to regain their freedom receive emotional support frompsychological consultants so they can find jobs and legal assistance and regaintheir self-confidence. Van,now 23, is working as a cook at a restaurant in Sa Pa after finishing collegeand marrying a man who sympathises with her past. Thehouse has helped hundreds of women overcome the trauma of their ordeals so theycan find work and reintegrate into society. NguyenTuong Long, head of the Compassion House’s management board, said: “Mostvictims suffer from severe psychological trauma. Many want to commit suicide,feel inferior and stay away from other people. It takes a lot of effort to helpthem reintegrate.” Long,also the founder of the Compassion House, said many victims preferred to remainisolated, which put them at further risk of being trafficked again. In2007, when he was head of the provincial Department of Social Evil Prevention,he opened the Compassion House. Sincethen, more than 220 victims have received assistance, some of them as young as10 years old. Atthe house, the victims receive physical and psychological assistance first,then get access to reintegration services and can choose whether staying at thehouse or return home. Iftheir living environment is not safe enough, the consultants advise them tostay at the house. None of them are allowed to use mobile phones and they areadvised to ignore strangers. LuongHong Loan, deputy director of the Pacific Links Foundation, said strictregulations at the house are necessary to protect the victims. "We alwaysput victims at the core of all our activities," she said./.
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Trafficked victims attend a class at the Compassion House. (Photo: thanhnien.vn ) 
