Vietnam

Overview

Vietnam is an “S” shaped country located along the eastern sea junction of the southern Indo chinese peninsula. China rests to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and 3,260 km of uninterrupted coast to the south and east. With over 80 million inhabitants occupying just over 325,000 square kilometers, Vietnam is one of the most densely populated landmasses in Asia. Rural to urban migration over the past two decades has created increasingly large cites throughout the country, and currently, there are seven urban centers with a population over more than one million.

Economically, Vietnam remains one of the poorest countries in the world. This is despite the fact that the Vietnamese economy has been second only to China in terms of economic growth over the past decade. Reforms undertaken by the Vietnamese government in the mid nineteen eighties have laid the groundwork for the transformation of Vietnam into a modern global economy. An emerging middle class has changed the demographic make up of Vietnam is a drastic manner. Many Vietnamese however, have been left behind by the progress. A full two thirds of the population continue to sustain their families with low wage field laboring employment. The cycle of poverty endured by these workers is often unending. All members of the family, including young children, are required to work as a means to survival. Over half of the country's students do not continue on to secondary school. Education is sacrificed for the basic necessities of life, creating a new generation of unskilled workers.

Human Trafficking in Vietnam

Vietnam is a source and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. Vietnamese women and girls are trafficked to Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Czech Republic for sexual exploitation. State-owned labor export companies recruit and send workers abroad; some of these laborers have been known to suffer conditions of involuntary servitude or bonded or forced labor. Women from Vietnam are trafficked to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages for sexual exploitation and labor. Other Vietnamese women are recruited to travel to Singapore by offers of marriage to Singaporean men; after arrival they face coercion or pressure that makes them vulnerable to trafficking. Vietnam is a destination country for Cambodian children who are trafficked for the purpose of begging. There is also internal trafficking from rural to urban areas.

Sexual Exploitation in Vietnam

As members of a densely populated, under-educated, and impoverished society, Vietnamese women are at particularly high risk for sexual exploitation. As the labor market becomes increasingly stratified, certain groups are being marginalized, with little or no access to economic assets, education and social service. Rural women make up one such group. Migration to urban centers in order to find employment places such women into vulnerable situations. Seeking work, or being coerced to work, in sex related industries is one consequence of lack of options, perceived familial obligations, and manipulation by those is a positions of power.

Conservative estimates place the number of commercial sex workers in Vietnam at approximately 70,000. This number is likely a drastic underestimation, failing to account for many forms of 'informal sexual exploitation' such as abuse and rape of domestic servants and employees. It is currently thought that up to one third of all sex workers are minors below the age of eighteen. The lack of solid information – even reliable estimates – is due both to the nature of the phenomenon and also to the fact that few systematic studies have been conducted on the subject.

Further Reading

	2010 - The Mekong Region Human Country Data sheets on Human Trafficking - Abstract from the report: "The International Labour Organization estimated in 2005 that 9.49 million people were in forced labour in the Asia-Pacific region, with a significant proportion thought to be in the Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.1 Within the Mekong region, the crime of human trafficking is widespread, yet little is known about specific trafficking patterns and trends....In these data sheets you will find a snapshot of human trafficking in the six Mekong countries, including statistical data on the number of people trafficked and the number of perpetrators prosecuted, geographic patterns of domestic and cross-border trafficking, information about trafficking trends, and data on anti-trafficking laws and penalties."
	2010 The Criminal Justice Response to Human Trafficking (Recent Developments in the Greater Mekong Sub-region) - This article highlights developments in the criminal justice response to human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region over the last three years. Developments in the strengthening of the legal framework, criminal justice institutions and in support provided to victims are highlighted while acknowledging that progress has been uneven across the region. Many obstacles remain and more needs to be done to ensure that recent developments result in real change where it matters: better protected and supported victims; more and better quality prosecutions that are in accordance with international criminal justice standards; greater levels of cooperation between the GMS counties; and a donor community that is facilitating and supporting such changes."
	2009 US Trafficking Persons Report -The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. In addition to providing a data on countries determined to be countries of origin, transit, or destination for a significant number of victims of human trafficking, the report also covers key topic of special interest such as: the role of parents in child trafficking, human trafficking for organ removal, child trafficking in gold mines, strengthening prohibitions against forced labour and fraudulent recruitment of foreign workers."
	Overview human trafficking issues in Vietnam from www.humantrafficking.org.
	Overview of the commercial sex exploitation of children (CSEC) in Vietnam from www.ECPAT.net
	International Labour Organization (ILO). “Children in Prostitution in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Ming City and Can Tho, Vietnam”. July 2002.