An outspoken overseas Vietnamese who has been boasting of protection of his countrymen was recently exposed as a human trafficker.
Tran Ngoc Thanh and the “Committee for protection of employees” in Poland with Thanh as the president labelled themselves as protectors of Vietnamese labourers abroad but the authories pointed out Thanh has actually been smuggling illegal immigrants for a long time and making much sin money from this unlawful activity.
From July 2002, Thanh and his accomplices brought people from Vietnam to Yugoslavia at a cost of 6,500 USD a person and from Poland to Yugoslavia at a cost of 4,800 USD per person, said a Vietnamese police source.
Ho Thi Khanh, Thanh’s wife, acknowledged that Thanh sent 200 people from Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces to work in Poland and Yugoslavia.
Tran Ngoc Thanh, who was born and grown-up in a poor rural area of Nghe An, was sent to study in Poland by the Party and the State while other young people with his same age left their families and schools to the battlefield for national defence without the date of return. This was a priority that not everyone was given during the wartime.
While studying and living in exile in Poland, Thanh took any trick in the book to make money. Apart from running two shops in Warsaw and Godanhxc (Poland) and in Serbia, Thanh earned money from bringing illegal immigrants to the country.
Thanh’s illicit act put tens of Vietnamese labourers in Eastern European countries into homeless circumstance. The jobless labourers had to live illegally, join in robbery gangs, violate laws, be expelled, even be imprisoned.
When it became difficult for Thanh to continue his human trafficking activity as Eastern European countries tightened the management of illegal immigrants and Vietnam implemented its policy of labour export a decade ago, Thanh conspired a new plot. He quickly set up his own organisation called the "Committee for protection of employees" to draw attention the overseas Vietnamese community.
Being used as a puppet to undermine Vietnam by several hostile forces, Thanh on one side unceasingly called for protection of labourers and on the other side trampled upon interests and dignity of labourers.
He used all cunning to lure, excite, evenly force labourers to take part in his actions, making them give up their jobs, send denunciation letters and join different protests and strikes. Many labourers became victims of Thanh’s dirty political ambitions. They became jobless and lived in misery./.
