Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have launched a three-month crackdown on human trafficking along Vietnam’s borders through September, given the recent complications with the issue.
A conference on implementing the crackdown was held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on July 2 with the participation of representatives from the Vietnamese Police Department for Investigation of Social Order-related Crimes, the Cambodian General Commissariat of National Police and the Lao General Department of Police.
Major General Ho Sy Tien, Director of the Vietnamese department, said cross-border human trafficking has increased and become complicated with the growing seriousness and number of trans-national rings and gangs.
The department reported that Vietnam uncovered 334 human trafficking cases and detained 616 traffickers in 2014. In the first half of 2015, it busted 136 cases, seized 227 traffickers and rescued 303 victims.
The number of human trafficking cases along the Vietnam-Laos and Vietnam-Cambodia borders accounts for some 6 percent of the cases recorded nationwide every year.
Most of the victims trafficked via the Vietnam-Laos border reside in the former’s central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. In Laos, they were forced to engage in sex work or were exploited at construction sites, industrial areas or mines.
Meanwhile, a number of Vietnamese women and children were sold to Cambodia to work at brothels, casinos, chicken fighting courses and massage parlours.
Facing the complicated developments, representatives from the three countries concurred to continue implementing bilateral agreements on enhancing counter-human trafficking cooperation reached by the Vietnamese Government and its Lao and Cambodian counterparts.
They will also bolster information exchanges, set up hotlines and liaison officers, and coordinate to investigate and pursue criminals and repatriate victims.-VNA
A conference on implementing the crackdown was held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on July 2 with the participation of representatives from the Vietnamese Police Department for Investigation of Social Order-related Crimes, the Cambodian General Commissariat of National Police and the Lao General Department of Police.
Major General Ho Sy Tien, Director of the Vietnamese department, said cross-border human trafficking has increased and become complicated with the growing seriousness and number of trans-national rings and gangs.
The department reported that Vietnam uncovered 334 human trafficking cases and detained 616 traffickers in 2014. In the first half of 2015, it busted 136 cases, seized 227 traffickers and rescued 303 victims.
The number of human trafficking cases along the Vietnam-Laos and Vietnam-Cambodia borders accounts for some 6 percent of the cases recorded nationwide every year.
Most of the victims trafficked via the Vietnam-Laos border reside in the former’s central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. In Laos, they were forced to engage in sex work or were exploited at construction sites, industrial areas or mines.
Meanwhile, a number of Vietnamese women and children were sold to Cambodia to work at brothels, casinos, chicken fighting courses and massage parlours.
Facing the complicated developments, representatives from the three countries concurred to continue implementing bilateral agreements on enhancing counter-human trafficking cooperation reached by the Vietnamese Government and its Lao and Cambodian counterparts.
They will also bolster information exchanges, set up hotlines and liaison officers, and coordinate to investigate and pursue criminals and repatriate victims.-VNA
