Human Trafficking Victim's Union
My mother is the sole source of consistent but meager income by being a maid taking care of old and ill people for other families. When I was 15, I think it was in 2004 after leaving the school; I registered myself in a vocational training course with a hope of getting a job to support myself and my mom. I met Dieu, a man who was 3 years older than me and was living in a neighboring commune. One day he asked me out to go to a nearby town, without caution, I just agreed and accompanied him."
The first shock came with the awareness that my bicycle was lost. He later told me he had sold my bicycle, and scared me that if I went back home now, my parents would get mad and beat me up. Some how he manipulated me into going to Mong Cai, a district of Quang Ninh province, standing in the borderline with China, also known to be a big and busy market where people can make money easily. Without knowing his hidden agenda, I agreed to head towards Mong Cai and happily visualized having a shiny and pretty bicycle before going home. Things went wrongly not as my fanstastic anticipation; he raped and sold me to China; bitterly I had trusted him."
"After a year in misery in China where I was repeatedly purchased by different brothels, beaten up, physically and mentally tortured by sex dealers and bosses, in 2005 I managed to escape to Vietnam along with one woman who was also trafficked."
Diep stopped to shed the tears before she said “I returned home in the embrace of my family and friends but my conditions went from bad to worse. My health deteriorated and my family cannot afford costly treatment. My hopes for a career were shattered and so was my belief in life. Crying for my anguish, my parents sent their complaint to sue Dieu at district and city level. 5 years has passed since without thorough solutions but my family had not stopped our endeavors. In 2010 we sent the letter to Hai Phong City Women’s Union and luck shone on us when it was just before the mass communication event funded by AAV named “Joining hands for peaceful lives” happened. I had learnt that this event was organized by Hai Phong City Women’s Union with an aim to give chance to raise voice of victims of human trafficking. Quickly after the event, the Kien An Police was commanded and led by the City Police to take appropriate action without delay regarding my case. In the mean time, the City Women’s Union came to consol and counseled me psychologically and financially supported me to a beautician course by using a fund of AAV. I have got a hope now for my future; I owe this to the City Women’s Union and AAV project. I am being trained to manicure and hair dressing profession, it is hard to have my own shop but first of all, I need to try my best to get offered a job by my trainer. I am confident now as I know I am not alone”.
Diep’s fight is not going to the end here. She will need more efforts and determination and support from her family and appropriate authorities. AAV wishes her luck, health and career and pledges to do as much possible for her and many victims of this crime to get that one illusive chance to fix their lives. We want them to know “They are not alone”.
I am not a lone!
If somebody has met Diep once, a young girl of merely 21 years old , they would hardly forget the sadness in her face although it is almost 6 years since she was forced to take a miserable path in her life. She was trafficked. The only consolation is after so many agonizing years the justice started to finally bloom.y and pretty bicycle before going home. Things went wrongly not as my fanstastic anticipation; he raped and sold me to China; bitterly I had trusted him."
Diep started her story: "I am living with my parents in Kien An district of Hai Phong province. My family has never been well-off, that is why I dropped out from school after finishing my 9th class to support my family fancially. My father is war veteran who was physically unable to work and make ends meet for the family.
Thin’s Story
Thin was only nineteen when she was introduced to a handsome Korean man by her village match maker. Thin was easily charmed by the handsome foreigner who also appeared to be rich and promised her the world. He also offered to take care of her poor, working family if she agreed to marry him. Being young and naive, Thin agreed to marry him. Her family spent a fortune on her wedding and on the paperwork required for her to travel to Korea with her new husband. She was a happy new bride and was excited about embarking on this new journey. But soon after she reached Seoul to join her new husband, she realised that she had fallen victim to a crime. Her new husband told her that he was not her ‘real’ husband but it was another man, a stranger that he then left her with.
"I was shocked beyond belief. He left me with this strange man and told me that this was the man I had to serve as a wife. And then he took off. I didn’t know what to do."
The stranger she was left with turned out to be a depraved, abusive ‘monster’ who kept her locked up in a small room for two months and treated Thin like a ‘sex slave’.
‘He would beat me up and treat me like an animal. I would beg him to stop, to let me go, but he wouldn’t stop.’
For Thin, those were the longest two months of her life, until one day, she woke up to find that the man had forgotten to lock the door. She took this opportunity to just run out of the door, not really knowing where she was heading, but determined to save herself.
‘I just ran for my life. I knew he was hot on my tail. So as soon as I reached a public place, a bus station, I went and hid in the ladies bathroom because I knew he couldn’t come in there. I didn’t come out for almost two days because I was afraid he would still be there looking for me’.
Days later, with the help of a kind Vietnamese man she’d met at the bus station, Thin was able to come back home to Hai Phong, Vietnam. But on her return, instead of being greeted with sympathy, she was ostracised by the villagers.
‘They said that I had been trafficked and made to work as a sexworker in Korea. They said I was a bad girl. I did not know how to fight them.’
Thankfully, she was soon approached by Vietnamese Women’s Union and was urged to participate in their weekly meetings.
"At these meetings I met other women, some of whom had also been trafficked and we talked about our experiences and how we can improve our lives. I started feeling hope again."
Human Trafficking is a crime
Human trafficking is a crime involving the cheating or deceiving of people into sexual servitude or labour for the purpose of their exploitation. It affects individuals, families and entire communities, in almost all parts of the world. For twenty three year old Thin*, being trafficked changed her life.
But she was one of the more fortunate ones who was able to return and build her life back. But there are still many who are not able to return home. Some fear the stigma associated with being a trafficking ‘victim’.
Our anti-trafficking programmes in Vietnam is helping raise awareness about this crime, to make sure that young people do not fall victim to unsafe migration. We are also helping people who have survived this crime get a new start in life.
