Lao Cai (VNA)♎ – A ceremony was held in the northern border province of Lao Cai on July 30 in response to the National Day Against Trafficking in Persons with a view of raising public awareness of the importance of human trafficking prevention and control.

Speaking at the event, President of the Vietnamese Women’s Union Nguyen Thi Thu Ha said that the ceremony marked the first National Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which was selected for July 30 by the Government in anticipation with global efforts to combat human trafficking. The union has coordinated closely with relevant agencies in the work, Ha stated, adding that over the past five years, its communication campaigns popularised information related to human trafficking to 14.1 million people. According to Major General Nguyen Phong Hoa, Deputy Head of the Police General Department, the traffickers have traded not only in women and children, but also in men, newborns, and human body organs and these illegal events occurred across provinces and cities. Around 500 human trafficking cases are discovered in Vietnam a year, involving over 700 traffickers and 1,000 victims, he reported. Preventing and combating the scourge requires the involvement of the entire society given its complicated characteristics and long-term effects, said Hoa. He asked police forces to keep a close watch on suspected traffickers in hot spots, especially along the border with China, Laos and Cambodia, as well as coordinating with people’s courts and people’s procuracies to speed up case investigations and prosecutions. Mobile hearings should be held in hot-spots of human trafficking to produce deterrent effect, he said. In another development, Nguyen Van Thinh, Political Counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in China, said that crimes related to illegal immigration, matchmaking and trafficking women into China, which are committed by Vietnamese, are on the rise. In 2015, 54 cases related to illegal marriage and trafficking were brought to light, with 26 Vietnamese women rescued. In the first half of 2016, 34 women were reportedly cheated to go to China and 18 of them were rescued. According to Thinh, to address the situation, it is important to expand communication on traffickers’ ruses as well as the reality in foreign countries, and at the same time strengthen management and inspections at border gates along the border shared with China. Vietnam enacted the Law on preventing and combating human trafficking in 2012. Also in the year, its government endorsed Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. In 2015, the country signed the ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.-VNA