This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 003268 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PRM; INL/AAE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PHUM PREL PINS KWMN VM TIP HIV AIDS
SUBJECT: INITIAL RESULTS OF A USG-FUNDED TIP PROJECT 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  The Department of State (PRM) funded a USD 
155,000 International Organization for Migration (IOM) 
project to combat trafficking in the northeastern province 
of Quang Ninh.  The project provides considerable training 
in preventing trafficking, HIV prevention and public health, 
in addition to vocational training in job skills relevant to 
the growing tourism infrastructure in the province.  A 
recent Embassy visit to Quang Ninh showed initial 
encouraging results from the project activities.  The second 
course has begun, and all 25 participants of the first 
course have now been placed in local hotels and restaurants 
practicing their job skills.  According to local officials, 
the post-internship employment rate could be high, 
representing a giant leap for a group of vulnerable women 
who, before the project began, had no hope at all.  End 
Summary. 
 
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PROJECT AND PROVINCE BACKGROUND 
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¶2.  (U) Despite the GVN's significant efforts to address its 
emerging trafficking problem, trafficking in persons, 
especially from the project province of Quang Ninh to China 
continues to be a major issue.  The root causes of 
trafficking are often perceived as poverty, lack of 
education, and, in Vietnam, social pressure brought on by 
the transition from a planned to a market economy. 
According to the Quang Ninh Women's Union, the province has 
numerous vocational training needs, especially for "people 
in difficult circumstances" such as victims of trafficking, 
prostitutes, and disadvantaged street children.  The USD 
155,000 IOM counter-trafficking project not only aims at 
addressing this need, but also helps respond to the 
province's ever-growing appetite for workers with restaurant 
and hotel skills for the tourist industry. 
 
¶3. (U) The project targets trafficking survivors, but to 
avoid stigmatizing the survivors by making them easily 
identifiable through participation in the project, at least 
half of the participants are women identified by local 
authorities and Women's Unions as being at high risk for 
trafficking rather than survivors of actual trafficking 
incidents.  Some categories falling under the "high risk" 
designation are: widows; single mothers; domestic abuse 
victims; daughters or husbands of convicted felons; and, 
recovering substance abusers or their wives/children. 
Teaching life skills and providing psychosocial counseling 
to trafficking survivors and vulnerable women is at least as 
important as providing vocational skills, according to IOM 
and project staff. 
 
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INITIAL PROMISING RESULTS 
------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U)  According to the Quang Ninh Provincial Women's 
Union and IOM, there have been two "Asian Cooking" courses 
under the project, one almost completed, one ongoing, for 50 
disadvantaged and trafficked women from within the province. 
In the training courses the women learn cooking, English, 
job seeking and interviewing skills, and various life skills 
to prepare them for reintegration into society.  All 25 
participants in the first course have been placed in various 
hotels and restaurants in Quang Ninh and Hanoi for 
internships, and some have already secured onward jobs. 
Embassy staff recently visited a restaurant in Ha Long City 
where three of the participants were working to improve 
their skills.  According to local officials and IOM, the 
post internship employment rate has the potential to be high 
for these women, though they will need considerable follow- 
up attention. 
 
¶5.  (U) Comment:  Given Quang Ninh's proximity to the 
Chinese border, trafficking will continue to be a persistent 
problem due to the low level of awareness and lack of 
vocational skills in vulnerable populations.  While the 
GVN's resources to combat trafficking are limited, 
assistance such as the IOM protection/reintegration project 
to equip the women with job skills reduces the pressure to 
seek employment in China and plays a vital part in the 
country's entire anti-trafficking effort.  The project is 
relatively expensive at USD 3,000 per trainee, but the 
impact on the trainees appears to be significant, and more 
durable than any other prevention/protection intervention we 
have seen in Vietnam to date.  We recommend working with IOM 
to expand this model in Quang Ninh as well as other areas 
that have both high tourist demand and serious trafficking 
problems, such as the northwest mountain areas and the 
Mekong Delta towns of Can Tho and Chau Doc.  End Comment. 
 
MARINE