Kidnapping haunts lives in border area

Cau has given up hope of seeing his child again.

Sung Thi De in Ban Lang Ward had her son snatched while she was away from home.

"When we went to work and left our three children at home, two strangers rushed into our house and tied the two elder children to the house’s pillar. Then they took my youngest son away," says Deo.

All the adults in the village were working in the fields at the time.

"I miss my son. I have no idea where he is now or whether he is alive or not," says Deo.

The authorities say the kidnappers are minor players, employed by criminal gangs in China.

"The kidnappers are part of an international criminal ring. When customers place orders for boys or girls, the ringleader in China will ask his accomplices, who are mostly drug addicts in Viet Nam, to plan kidnapping cases in Lai Chau Province," says Senior Lieutenant Colonel Phan Hong Minh of the province’s Borderguard Force.

He says it is virtually impossible to track down gang members in the mountainous province, which shares a 273km border with China.

The latest kidnapping case involved three boys, says Minh.

Head of the Scouting Department, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Ha Van Phuc, says traffickers mainly target boys aged between o­ne and four to meet the demand from China created by the country’s o­ne-child-per-family policy, which has left many parents without male heirs. "So many people want to adopt boys as their sons," he adds.

Minh says traffickers usually wait until the adults in the village are away or when parents take their children to the market before making their move. Often, he says, the kidnappers will try to entice children by offering sweets or inviting them to play games.

But when the need is urgent, traffickers will often break into homes to snatch children at night, he says.

"I was sleeping at home with my five children," says Ly Thi La, from Tam Duong Town. "I was suddenly awoken by a strange sound. Out of habit I turned to my youngest son, but he wasn’t there. I got up immediately and saw a man running away with my son. I shouted and luckily everybody rushed out and saved my son just in time."

Spirited away

And it’s not just children – women are also targeted by traffickers, but for different reasons.

Between 2004 and 2007, the authorities say traffickers kidnapped 58 women and children from Lai Chau Province.

"We were told that we would be employed to make roads in Sa Pa for a salary of VND950,000 (US$59) per month. They took us to a town in China," says Pham Thi H, 22.

"We were hit and forced into prostitution. Everyday, we had to have sex with five to ten men to earn money for the boss," she says.

H managed to escape and alerted Border Guard Station No 297.

The border guards managed to track down the gang and arrested two ring leaders when they tried to cross from China into Viet Nam.

Minh says traffickers employ a number of ruses to fool border guards, such as pretending to visit relatives in Viet Nam. They usually hoodwink the villagers with bogus offers of lucrative employment. Victims are unworldly and usually uneducated – easy prey for the traffickers, says Minh.

Ly Thi P and her daughter in Phong Tho District were offered jobs that turned out to be bogus. When they crossed the border, they were sold to a 50-year-old man for VND12 million ($750). The two traffickers – Vang Trinh Phenh and Ly Thi Mî have been traced to China’s Van Nam Province.

"Many women in my ward were trafficked," says Ma Pao Hang, the deputy chairman of Mu Sang Ward’s People Committee. He says that when they arrive in China they are typically sold into prostitution or forced into marriage. If they subsequently contract a sexually transmitted disease, they are sent packing, he says.

Poverty reduction

Following a recent tip-off, the province’s border guards arrested three traffickers and freed their three victims, but they face an uphill battle.

The province’s People’s Committee believes the best way to thwart the traffickers is by reducing poverty and through public-awareness programmes in the border provinces. But Minh is not optimistic.

The terrain is very inhospitable. And while there is poverty there will also be those who fall for promises of good jobs, he says.