Challenging Transnational Human Trafficking in Vietnam
Human trafficking has reached a rampant level in Vietnam, primarily targeting women, children, and ethnic minorities. Every year, a large number of Vietnamese citizens are trafficked to other countries, often those who come from “poor, vulnerable, or broken families” and lack a proper understanding of the crime of human trafficking. Although human trafficking in Vietnam is complex and persistent, it is not an insoluble problem.
Nowadays, the vast majority of human trafficking victims are trafficked to Asian countries bordering Vietnam, such as China, Thailand, and South Korea. Over the past few decades, large numbers of Vietnamese women and children have been trafficked to other countries for sexual exploitation and forced labour. Vietnam’s minorities, such as the Hmong people, are also trafficked in large numbers into rural China, where they become victims of domestic servitude and forced marriage. Faced with the increasingly rampant levels of human trafficking, the Vietnamese government has been taking out some actions to combat human trafficking. However, due to the lack of clear policy regulations and the long-standing corruption problem in its law enforcement agencies, the Vietnamese government’s efforts to combat human trafficking have not achieved satisfactory results.
A key reason as to why human trafficking is so serious in Vietnam is that the government lacks a comprehensive anti-trafficking policy. Vietnam’s current legal policies do not fully cover all types of human trafficking. Many human traffickers can exploit current policy loopholes to engage in specific human trafficking while evading punishment. For instance, workers who travel to other countries to work are not considered victims of human trafficking in Vietnam. Some traffickers lure victims to China by offering them job opportunities and then traffic them there to circumvent Vietnamese law. At the same time, serious levels of corruption in Vietnam has also made it difficult to implement and enforce offensive initiatives against human trafficking. Some Vietnamese officials and police officers have been known to accept bribes and collaborate with traffickers, making the fight against human trafficking more complicated and difficult. Hence, imperfect legal policies and a corrupt bureaucratic judicial system have largely prevented the problem of human trafficking in Vietnam from being effectively addressed.
On the other hand, the lack of protection for vulnerable groups is also a major reason for rampant levels of human trafficking in Vietnam. Vietnam has historically had a serious problem of gender discrimination within its culture and society. Women usually maintain a lower status in Vietnamese society and are not as valued compared to men. Thus, they are easily trafficked as commodities by human traffickers to other countries. Despite this, the Vietnamese government has not launched any policies to protect women or promote gender equality, which has allowed for the continued trafficking of women. The Vietnamese government also lacks a clear policy of protection for children. Like women, large numbers of Vietnamese children, especially girls, are trafficked to other countries as victims of sex crimes or forced labour. Lastly, Vietnam had done little to ensure protection for minority groups. Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups often live in remote rural areas, are poor and lack education, making them easy victims of human trafficking. The Vietnamese government’s indifference to the rights and interests of minority groups has made these populations more susceptible to human trafficking crimes.
The Vietnamese government can stop human trafficking by formulating a stricter judicial policy and a better protection policy for vulnerable groups, to better protect the basic human rights of the Vietnamese people. For one, the government should introduce a more standardized legal policy against human trafficking which would cover all types of human trafficking, so as to prevent traffickers from having policy loopholes that can be exploited. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government can increase criminal penalties for traffickers as a deterrent, thereby helping to reduce the number of traffickers. Therefore, the Vietnamese government should introduce special protection policies for women, children, and ethnic minorities, such as providing economic assistance, social welfare, and educational opportunities to better support themselves in society, making them less vulnerable to human traffickers. Finally, the Vietnamese government should also strengthen investigations into official corruption and increase legal penalties for corrupt officials. This will help eliminate corruption among law enforcement officials, address persistent bureaucratic corruption, and ensure the effective implementation of relevant anti-trafficking policies. As long as the Vietnamese government can effectively implement these strong anti-trafficking policies, Vietnam’s human trafficking issue can be quickly and effectively resolved.
Managing Editor: Suravi Kumar