Sex Trafficking of Women and Children in Vietnam

Published in the South Australian Globalist Magazine Sex Trafficking of Women and Children in Vietnam At the advent of an increasingly interdependent and globalising world, it is with little wonder that human beings have become a valuable and easily exploitable commodity, especially in areas where poverty and its effects are extensive. In poverty stricken regions such as mainland South East Asia, human trafficking is nothing new. The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) defines human trafficking as “a crime involving the cheating or deceiving of people into sexual servitude or labour for the purpose of their exploitation.” The United Nations estimates that as many as four million people are smuggled into foreign countries each year, generating up to $7 billion annually in illicit profits for criminal syndicates. Among this is the trafficking of women in Vietnam for sexual exploitation because of their vulnerability and poverty. Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Ottowa, Richard Poulin contends ”the sex industry, previously considered marginal, has come to occupy a strategic and central position in the development of international capitalism.” It is evident that as the world increasingly becomes interdependent, human trafficking trans-nationally will become prominent as crime syndicates and individual proprietors profit extensively from a highly demanded and sought after industry. Ironically, co-authors of ’Sexual Risk Behaviour of Women in Entertainment Services, Vietnam’, Thuy Thi Thanh Nguyen, Christina P. Lindan, Hoan Xaun Nguyen, John Barclay and Khiem Ha Ba explain that in Vietnamese culture, prostitution and pornography is illegal and labelled a “social evil” which contributes to the corrosion of society. It is disturbing then that, according to Human Trafficking.org, the average age of Vietnamese women who are trafficked each year is between 15 and 17. Furthermore, Poulin points out that obligations of debt repayment to international financial institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank, encourage developing economies to develop their tourism and entertainment industries. This has led to the expansion of the sex trade as a viable entertainment and tourist market, targeting the demographics of foreign Westerners and Japanese men. Between 2004 and 2009, UNIAP reveals 2,935 Vietnamese people were known victims of human trafficking, though the actual number could easily be exponentially higher. According to the United States’ Department of State, Cambodian police have estimated that more than 50,000 girls were found in brothels across Cambodia, many who were Vietnamese. PhD candidate in the Department of Government and Politics and Program Assistant for the Middle-East and Africa Project, Andrea Bertone says trends have found that women are trafficked from poorer regions including Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Africa to Western Europe, North America, Australia and Japan – the elite developed countries of the world. Furthermore, gender relations video documentarian Ursula Biemann says that while the powerful players certainly lay the foundation for the global trafficking of women, it is the small units, relatives or acquaintances who recruit girls in slum neighbourhoods. This explains the miniscule numbers of reported trafficking victims as girls who are trafficked by family members are not reported as missing. This further exemplifies that the poor are repeatedly exploited as a means of easily marketable commodities, leading the government to turn a blind eye to such activities. The Coalition Against Trafficking of Women (CATW) further evidences this as they reveal, “two thirds of the Vietnamese government officials are known buyers of women in prostitution, in massage parlours, karaoke bars and brothels.” Although the government has pledged a solid approach to fighting the sexual exploitation of women and children, the corruption of government officials illustrates the depth and intrinsic nature of such crimes. Therefore, it has become increasingly problematic for non-governmental organisations such as UNIAP, the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) and the Vietnam Youth Union (VYU) to combat and raise awareness of trafficking issues in Vietnam because of poverty and a lack of access to resources. Disturbingly, law lecturer at the University of Iowa Mark Sidel, explains that “20,000 children younger than 18 are victims of prostitution in Vietnam, representing 15 per cent of the total number of prostitutes in the nation.” Interestingly, the US Department of State found that Vietnam has an internal trafficking problem with “women and children from rural areas trafficked to urban centres for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.” These facets indicate a trend of poverty stricken communities and families who have little choice in selling off their daughters in exchange for small amounts of cash in order to live. According to CATW, traffickers have admitted to selling women and children for AUD$230-275 each, on average. Many are sold as wives to Chinese men or Western men who will sell them again into sex slavery and/or forced labour after they have gone abroad. Many are never found again. Furthermore, many women are not directly paid by their proprietors – many only receive pay through tipping. According to Nguyen, Lindan, Nguyen, Barclay and Ha , 75 per cent of women who worked in the sex industry had a total monthly income of less than AUD$92. Direct consequences of the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploits includes the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and the wide abuse of drugs by Vietnamese prostitutes as a coping mechanism for a callous lifestyle. Co-authors of ‘Men Who Have Sex with Men and HIV in Vietnam: A Review’, Donn Colby, Nghia Huu Cao, and Serge Doussantousse reveal that in Vietnam, the number of HIV infections reported per year has increased dramatically from less than 2,000 per year in the early 1990s to 9,239 in the year 2000 and more than 15,000 in 2002. By the end of 2002, the cumulative total number of infections reached 59,200. The mixture of casual sex with multiple partners along with drug use has drastically increased the HIV outbreak due to the inherent dangers of sharing needles. According to co-authors of ‘Drug use among female sex workers in Hanoi, Vietnam’, Trung Nam Tran, Roger Detels, Thuy Long Hoang and Phuong Lan Hoang, studies have found that “among middle-class female sex workers , 27 per cent used drugs… and among low-class femal sex workerss, 46 per cent used drugs.” Such statistics indicate that desolate situations can contribute to unbridled drug use as an escape method. However, due to the thriving tourist industry and the fact that women in the sex trade have ample contact with rich and foreign businessmen, Nguyen, Lindan, Nguyen, Barclay, and Ha clarify that the “potential spread of HIV and STDs among these women is compounded by the fact that many are quite mobile.” As such, commercial sex workers may unknowingly spread the disease, which has already been evident in the degradation of Vietnamese public health. The number of HIV positive diagnosed cases has drastically increased each year and contributing to this rise is the sharing of needles and drug use among female sex workers. A problematic aspect of addressing mitigation strategies in STD prevention and drug use is the taboo nature on a societal level, with the particular consensus that discussing these facets is a ‘social evil’ and contributes to their manifestation. UNICEF argues that the causes of human trafficking are “poverty, little education, lack of awareness, family conflict, the demand of Chinese men for wives, and the open border between China and Vietnam.” There have been multiple strategies and policies implemented by various international NGOs, as well as the Vietnamese government, to alleviate and curb the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. Co-authors of ‘HIV infection and risk factors among female sex workers in southern Vietnam’, Thuy Nguyen Thi Thanh, Nhung Vo Tuyet, Thuc Nguyen Van, Lien Truong Xuan and Khiem Ha Ba explain the Vietnamese Government has implemented education and rehabilitation centres where female commercial sex workers are sent for several months if they are arrested, which provide job training and encouragement to find other types of work. According to the US Department of State, local NGOs, including the VWU, have developed awareness projects, vocational training for teenage girls in high-risk areas, and legal handbooks to train local law enforcement in dealing with trafficking. Trafficking rings often exploit both women and children – women and young girls are sent abroad for brokered marriages while young boys are sent to China for adoption. Under Vietnamese Law, UNIAP says human trafficking offences can implicit fines of up to $50,000,000 Dong (almost AUD $2,360) and up to 20 years in jail. However, UNIAP states that trafficking victims are offered support through ‘shelter programmes’, where returned victims receive psychological support before reintegration into their communities, and engage in vocational training of their choosing or attend school and receive psychological support. Nonetheless, even though there are laws protecting victims of trafficking as well as facilities and support institutions, the core problem remains that victims are relatives of the proprietors. Human trafficking in Vietnam has always been prevalent despite being stigmatised in the public arena as a ‘social evil’. The inherent premise of poverty means that women and children are easily subjected to exploitation, resulting in the trafficking of women and children both internally and abroad to countries like China and Malaysia. Biemann contends that at times, women often feel that these agents are not exploiting them but actually “providing a valuable service in their desire to move to richer countries… and even if they are lonely and exhausted, they are still able to send money home, not only supporting their family but generating hard cash for their governments”. Furthermore, Sidel elaborates saying the harsh market economy also means that the sex trade, inherent in the entertainment and tourist industries, has become a viable source of income for Vietnam and has bolstered its GDP annually. We therefore can identify the consequences of uncontrolled capitalism where the gap between the rich and the poor only grows wider, leaving the poor to scourge what they can to make a living.