Two families in Phu Quoc city, Kien Giang province, spoke out on August 25, 2023 to Radio Free Asia, reflecting that their children were “taken by a group of human traffickers” to Laos and possibly on the way to Myanmar or China.
Two of the group of victims, which may have at least five to nine people, according to the victims’ families to RFA, are identified as Trinh Khanh Hoang Anh (17 years old) and Le Thi Tuong Vy (15 years old). Hoang Anh and Tuong Vy were told that they had been promised by a group of people to get out of Phu Quoc where they could get jobs, so they could help their families in difficult circumstances.
Trinh Huu Phuoc, father of Trinh Khanh Hoang Anh, from Phu Quoc told Radio Free Asia on Friday:
“My son was also at home before, five days ago, ie on August 20, he left with a group of ‘friends’, saying he went to Ha Tien to find a job, but unexpectedly went with ‘friends’ got in the car and didn’t know how the situation was, but now went to Laos and prepared to go to Myanmar. Meanwhile, I was informed that on the way he sent home a text message saying that he was asking for help and didn’t want to go, but ‘friends’ wouldn’t let him back.”
Mr. Phuoc continued:
“His friends, I don’t know when my son has known them, because he made an appointment somewhere before, already there. It already has some way to go, because my son is only 17 years old and only has an identity card, but no passport, how can he go over there, the family is also very confused. I think there’s a temptation in this matter to get underage kids into jobs like that, because they’re underage either.”
Also from Phu Quoc, on August 25, Le Thi Truc Ly, Le Thi Tuong Vy’s biological aunt, reflected to RFA about the situation of her niece, who is believed to be taken away from Kien Giang by a human trafficking group and now appeared in Laos at the same time as the case of the young man Trinh Khanh Hoang Anh mentioned above:
“Tuong Vy left four or five days ago, with her family in An Thoi, Phu Quoc, Kien Giang. When she went Tuong Vy didn’t say anything, just said that her friend asked her to go to China three days earlier, those three days my sister also kept her at home very closely, when my sister had work to go to the back of the house, she ran away with her ‘group of friends’, she got in that car, but my sister couldn’t keep up, she got in that car and ran away. Tuong Vy’s family is poor, her parents work as hired laborers, Tuong Vy studied until 7th grade, then she quit, she was 15 years old, had no papers, no proof at all.
My sister family background is normal, my niece also sold goods online, went around there and met some friends online, then went back and forth, pull together, invited each other to go with a friend, say to go to China… She texted me saying that she went there to work and sent money back to her parents. The day the family contacted her, she said that she was going to Laos, and she told her mother that she would go to China for a trip. Tuong Vy went with Hoang Anh in the group, he said that he went to 6-7 people, then said that when he got close to Thailand, he split into two teams, the girls went to the other car, then three boys and a girl were in another car, they divided into two groups.”
Trinh Huu Phuoc told RFA that the family had reported the incident to the local police, he said:
“My family also came to the Ward Police as well as the police agency where I live to present to the authorities, but in the situation that I declared, the authorities here said that it is not competent enough to solve this case, and only our family went to Rach Gia, where the Provincial Police, to make a prosecution file, to report it, but in Phu Quoc, the Phu Quoc City Police said that ‘we are not competent to handle this case.”
Regarding the case of Le Thi Tuong Vy and reporting to the authorities, Tuong Vy’s biological aunt told RFA:
“Reported to Phu Quoc Police, they asked to see Tuong Vy’s message, if it was kidnapping or something, people would get involved, or this and that, and this one she ‘demands’ to go to work, so it’s hard for people to investigate. My sister’s family is also poor, she only works as a hired hand to earn a living, so Tuong Vy intends to go to work to help her family, the family just stays at home, now runs to report to the police, but doesn’t know how to act. I don’t know what gangs have worked with until now, but when I heard Tuong Vy’s message that many Vietnamese people here had passed there so she followed.”
After discussing the families of the two cases above, RFA Vietnamese contacted directly the Phu Quoc Police on the same day of August 25 to request verification of the incident and find out if the police and the authorities can help as well as to learn about the situation of ‘trafficking’, if any in the locality. An officer answered directly on the phone:
“They are in Phu Quoc so they should go to the criminal division of the Phu Quoc City Police Department to report and the local police would receive it, they would take the first step. And this (the situation of human trafficking, if any, in the locality) cannot be answered (for reporters), we provide the address of the investigating agency, for example if they have a case, they will go to report on that agency.”
Radio Free Asia also emailed the representative of the diplomatic mission of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to request the Laotian diplomatic mission to inform the Lao government’s response to the suspected incident to this cross-border ‘trafficking’, but has not yet received a reply.
Vietnam’s official media said that illegal human trafficking cases, including illegal cross-border women trafficking, had long occurred in Kien Giang. In a separate incident, at the end of December 2006, according to the website of the Vietnam Women’s Union, Kien Giang broke up a cross-border women trafficking ring and freed three female victims.
Recently, Hai Quan Online magazine, a media agency of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in an article published on August 20, 2023, said that human trafficking crimes are becoming more and more sophisticated: “Criminals Human trafficking is identified by the United Nations as one of the four most dangerous types of crime. In Vietnam, from the beginning of the year until now, the crime of human trafficking tends to increase, especially in the country, causing many consequences for society, especially the victims.”
Translated by Thoibao.de from RFA: https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/vietnamnews/two-families-plead-for-help-as-their-children-were-trafficked-to-laos-08252023091349.html
