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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Vietnam
Trafficking
Selling children into prostitution abroad is rising in southern Vietnam.
("Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated Press, 24 April 1998)
Thousands of Vietnamese women are trafficked through the Vietnam-China border by
illegal organizers who take them to Cambodia and from there to neighboring countries for
prostitution purposes. Vietnamese pimps pretend to court village girls to bring them to
the city, and then sell them to brothels. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women
and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)
Vietnamese traffickers sell hundreds of women and children each year in Europe, China,
Cambodia and Macau, for prostitution and arranged marriages. ("EU wants more
cooperation with Vietnam to end trafficking women, drugs," AFP, 27 February
1998)
Police uncovered a Taiwanese trafficking
ring and arrested Lee Min Long, as he left for Taiwan with a suitcase packed with pictures
and personal documents of 400 Vietnamese women. According to the police, from 1993 to
1998, Long traveled 23 times to Vietnam to organize a network selling Vietnamese women to
Taiwan. Through local accomplices working at karaoke bars, restaurants and hotels, Long
found young girls, generally from the countryside, and lured them with the prospect of
marriage to a wealthy Taiwanese businessman. ("Women trade to Taiwan cracked
down," HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network, 15 July 1998)
Many of the prostituted women and children in Cambodia are from Vietnam. (Chris Seper,
"Police Sweeps Help Clean Up Child Prostitution," Christian Science Monitor,
8 January 1998)
Prostituted
girls, most of them aged 15 to18 years of age, are found in the Svay Pak red-light
district of Cambodia. Many girls are much younger. Most of them are smuggled in from
Vietnam and all are bound by contracts, which last from six months to over a year. Svay
Pak has the largest number of prostituted Vietnamese girls. ("The Street of Little
Flowers," rewritten from 'Children of the Dust,' by MIKEL FLAMM and NGO KIM CUC, Bangkok
Post, 23 February 1997)
Unofficial estimates say that there are as many
as 15,000 prostituted persons in Phnom Penh, and that up to 35% of them have been smuggled
into Cambodia from China or Vietman, mostly from the southwestern provinces of Vietnam
(Long An, An Giang, Song Be, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City). Brothel
owners pay traffickers from US$350 to $450 (8,750 to 11,250 baht) for each attractive
Vietnamese virgin 16 years or younger. Non-virgins and those considered less beautiful are
sold from $150 to $170 each (3,750 to 4,250 baht). ("Children of the dust,"
rewritten from 'Children of the Dust,' by MIKEL FLAMM and NGO KIM CUC, Bangkok Post,
23 February 1997)
One third of 55,000 prostitutes in Cambodia are under 18 and most are Vietnamese.
(World Human Rights Organization and UNICEF, "Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated
Press, 24 April 1998)
Traffickers have admitted to selling women and children for US$250-300 each. (Border
Guard Leiutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hoa, "Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated
Press, 24 April 1998)
Methods and Techniques of
Traffickers
Most women and children trafficked from Vietnam are taken to China and Cambodia,
Victims are kidnapped for brothels by deceptive job offers or tourist trips, matchmaking
with foreigners who often sell and resell the women abroad. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking
in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)
Marriages entered into by Vietnamese women with Taiwanese, Europeans, Americans and
Thais have ended in, the woman being sold and resold in brothels by her
"husband" upon arrival to the "husband's" nation. (CATW - Asia
Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)
Official Response and Action
Between September 1995 and March 1997, Vietnamese border guard forces uncovered 121
child trade cases, arresting 186 traffickers and freeing 281 victims including 31 under
age 16. (Border Guard Leiutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hoa, "Vietnam Child Sex Trade
Rising," Associated Press, 24 April 1998)
The Prime Minister of Vietnam, Phan Van Khai, in July 1998 gave policymakers one month
to devise new laws to deal with the increasing child abuse, labor and trafficking.
("Vietnam party chief urges end to child abuses," Reuters, 1 July 1998)
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Vietnam Women's Union in
Lang Son Province are to launch a province-wide information campaign focused on
trafficking in women and children. The campaign aims to raise public awareness of the
trafficking problem and alert potential victims that trafficking in women and children
from Vietnam to China has been increasing in recent years. ("Campaign to stop
trafficking of women and children starts," 14 March 1998)
Prostitution
There are 70,000 prostitutes in Vietnam - an old figure that seems far
too low given the increasing number of new karaoke bars, massage parlors and discos known
for prostitution. (government statistics Keith B. Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers
Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)
5% of prostitutes in Vietnam are children, which means that 20,000 children are in
prostitution in Vietnam. This rose from 11% in 1991. (Christian Science Monitor, 21
May 1997)
Hotel massage parlors offer special massages, by the females, who earn only tips as
they are controlled by the Momma-san. A massage costs $100 per service, but the price goes
down as the night goes on. (Keith B. Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone,"
The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)
Policy and Law
The transition in Vietnam to a market oriented economy has left many women unemployed
and forced to find any means to survive, including prostitution. (John Chalmers,
"Economic Reforms Fails to Benefit Vietnam’s Women," Chicago Tribune,
9 March 1998)
Vietnam’s open-door policy for foreign trade and investment initiated in the late
1980s has led to a rapid increase in prostitution and trafficking. ("Vietnam to stick
with open-door policy-report," Reuters, 3 April 1998)
Official Response and Action
From 1996-1997, 1,335 people have been arrested since police began a crackdown on
prostitution. Ninety-four karaoke bars were shut down, and 500 others suspended.
("Vietnam Police Crack Down on Vice," Associated Press, 10 February 1998)
In early 1996, Vietnamese officials became concerned about the growing problem -
prostitution, drugs, and pornographic and violent movies and songs - so the party and
government launched a campaign. Unlicensed massage parlors were closed, others were
ordered to keep their rooms well-lit and visible from the outside. Karaoke bars were
forced to comply with the same regulations. (Deputy Foreign Minister Le Mai, Keith B.
Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15
September 1997)
Official Corruption and Collaboration
As high as two thirds of the Vietnamese government officials are known buyers of women
in prostitution in, massage parlours, karaoke bars and brothels. Their activities are
financed through government agency "slush funds." ("Vietnamese government
officials biggest customers for prostitutes," Deutsche Press-Agentur, 2 March
1998)
Child prostitution is on the increase in Vietnam. The military and Communist Party
officials have been implicated in the rise. (The International Federation of Human Rights,
"International human rights group slams Vietnam," Reuters, 25 July 1997)
Prostitution Tourism
Prostitution is becoming a feature of the burgeoning tourism industry: hotels and
tourist companies providing women to male buyers. After Vietnam shifted to a market
economy, prostitution became so integrated into trade relations that business deals are
often closed with the use of women as incentive or reward to foreign investors,
bureaucrats and corporate representatives. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women
and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)
The bar Apocalypse Now, known for its wartime motif - helicopters painted on the
ceilings, with large celing fans serving as the rotor blades, is a favorite among
foreigners living here. The bar is well known for prostitution. (Keith B. Richburg,
"The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)
Pornography
Case
A woman was fined US$170 and imprisoned for three years
for showing pornographic videos at a café in southern Vietnam, after police seized 20
pornographic tapes at her home. Pornography is called a "social evil" and is
banned in Vietnam. ("Vietnam jails woman over pornographic videos," Reuter,
31 July 1997)
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Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin
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