China and Vietnam declare war on human traffickers

Abducted Vietnamese women prepare to return home at Dongxing port, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on the China-Vietnam border. [Photo by Huang Jun/China Daily]

Stringent measures will be implemented to tackle cross-border abductions of young women.

Police in China and Vietnam will strengthen exchanges of intelligence and evidence, and conduct joint investigations and exercises in a bid to smash large cross-border human trafficking rings, according to a top government official.

Chen Shiqu, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security's Criminal Investigation Department, said border management will be strengthened and inspections will be intensified to cut off the traffickers' channels.

Officers will also focus on improving cooperation in case investigations, collection of evidence, the capture and repatriation of suspects, and victim rescue and rehabilitation.

The ministry said a huge economic imbalance coupled with loopholes in social management have resulted in a large number of Vietnamese women, mostly from poor rural areas, being kidnapped and illegally transported to China for forced marriages or to work as prostitutes.

Chen Jianfeng, director of the anti-human trafficking office at the ministry's Criminal Investigation Department, promised tougher measures against traffickers: "Women are not commodities, and they should not be marketed. We will deepen practical cooperation on law enforcement with Vietnam to crack down on such crimes."

Common ancestry

The border between China and Vietnam is more than 1,300 kilometers long and there are few natural barriers. Many people living on both sides of the border have common ancestry, so cross-border marriages are common, while locals frequently move between the two countries without checks.

The conditions in the subtropical region allow gangs to move young Vietnamese women across the border under the pretext of providing jobs as nannies or servants, and in industry.

The ministry declined to release statistics, but said the number of women trafficked fell slightly last year, as a result of intensified efforts by the countries to combat such crimes.[page]

A Vietnamese woman waits to be repatriated at a temporary hostel in Anqing, Anhui province. [Photo by Xu Pu/China Daily]

Last year, police from both countries conducted a special three-month exercise that targeted traffickers. Figures provided by the ministry show that Chinese police uncovered 184 cases of human trafficking and arrested 290 suspects, including 29 Vietnamese nationals.

The exercise also smashed 61 criminal gangs, leading to the rescue of 207 Vietnamese women and one child.

"We still face a tough task fighting cross-border human trafficking because of the huge profits available to the gangs, and a lack of awareness among poor, ill-educated women," Chen Shiqu said.

He added that the large economic and social differences between China and Vietnam mean many Vietnamese women who are keen to work in China or move to the country in search of wealthy suitors are targeted and tricked by traffickers.

"These women often have low levels of education and their judgment is poor. They are eager to come to China to become rich, or to marry a rich man," he said.

Chen Jianfeng said the traffickers usually target rural women in their 20s and 30s.

"Some criminals have even established illegal cross-border marriage brokers who tell the women that they will live in a big city and marry a wealthy man," he said.

According to Chen Shiqu, the victims are often sold in China's rural areas as brides for poor villagers, or forced to provide sexual services in underground prostitution dens in coastal or border areas, including the provinces of Guangdong and Yunnan, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Yin Guohai, an officer with the ministry's Criminal Investigation Department, said Chinese gangs collaborate with their Vietnamese counterparts to conduct trafficking, and members are allotted different tasks to form a complete chain of interest.

Jin Yulu, a police officer at the Ruili checkpoint in the Dehong Dai and Jingpo autonomous prefecture in Yunnan, said Vietnamese traffickers search for local women, and then arrange for them to illegally bypass border checkpoints by taking them along hidden roads in forested or mountainous areas, although a number also enter China illegally by river.

Upon arrival, the traffickers transfer the women to their Chinese accomplices, who provide lodgings, contact agents and then transport them to various parts of the country.

The price for each woman usually ranges from 60,000 to 100,000 yuan ($8,700 to $14,490), based on age, appearance and nationality, he added.

Earlier this month, 13 men were arrested in Yunnan and charged with cross-border trafficking. They are accused of bringing 27 Vietnamese women into China for forced marriages between July 2014 and April last year, according to the Kaiyuan people's court in Yunnan's Honghe prefecture.

Ten of the defendants are accused of kidnapping the women from the border area and selling them at prices ranging from 33,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan each in rural areas of the provinces of Hunan, Shandong and Hebei.[page]

The three other defendants were charged with knowingly buying women who had been abducted, according to prosecutors. The court is expected to release its verdict soon.

Under China's Criminal Law, people found guilty of kidnapping or trafficking women face jail terms of between five and 10 years.

However, if the circumstances are deemed more serious－such as the use of force, or even people dying during abduction－traffickers face sentences ranging from 10 years to the death penalty, according to Li Wei, a lawyer from the Beijing Lawyers Association.

Judicial cooperation

Chen Shiqu said the authorities face practical challenges identifying such crimes and breaking the profit chain.

"We have difficulty uncovering evidence, managing and controlling the border, and busting major criminal rings," he said.

China and Vietnam recently agreed to use a number of joint patrols to tackle the problem.

The two countries signed the Mekong River Sub-regional Cooperation Anti-trafficking Memo in 2001, and established annual meetings between senior officials, according to Dai Peng, a law professor who specializes in criminal investigation at the People's Public Security University of China.

Moreover, China has also established eight border offices with neighboring countries, including four with Vietnam, he said.

Chen Shiqu said Chinese police will carry out regular exercises to combat the trafficking of foreign women, and will also pay greater attention to patrolling key areas such as bus stations, docks and small roads in the countryside or mountainous regions that are often used by traffickers.

The police will also continue to strengthen resettlement and repatriation for rescued women to protect their rights.

Hong Daode, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said greater cross-border efforts will be required to beat the traffickers.

"International cooperation is vital, because it leads to greater intelligence sharing and better cooperation on joint actions, which is the key to capturing traffickers and smashing cross-border trafficking rings," he said.

Editor: Eric Wang