VZCZCXRO8037
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #0456/01 1181124
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281124Z APR 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0770
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 0558
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0805

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000456 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL CVIS KWMN TIP ELAB SMIG SOCI TW VM
SUBJECT: MORE ON VIETNAMESE BRIDES TO TAIWAN 
 
REF: 05 HCMC 1299 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000456  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  During a recent visit to the Mekong Delta 
province of Can Tho, a local reporter and expert on women's 
issues estimated that at least 14,000 women -- mostly poor and 
uneducated -- have married Taiwanese and some South Korean men 
since 2000.  The perceived economic benefits of overseas 
marriage are driving the process.  Matchmakers play a key 
recruiting role in these legal marriages.  The expert is 
concerned that the young, uneducated women do not appreciate the 
consequences of overseas marriage.  She also reported some cases 
of possible trafficking of women once in Taiwan as well as "bait 
and switch" of grooms on the eve of marriage in Vietnam.  The 
expert wants local government to step up its education outreach 
to local women to counter what she sees as an impending increase 
in efforts of matchmakers in the Mekong Delta.  Septel reports 
on our conversations in Can Tho with Women's Union and police 
officials on Taiwanese brides and TIP.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During a visit to the Mekong Delta province of Can on 
April 11, we met with Ms. Thanh Trang, Social Affairs Reporter 
for the Can Tho bureau of Thanh Nien newspaper to discuss the 
Vietnamese brides to Taiwan issue in the Mekong Delta.  Ms. 
Trang (protect) has covered the bridal export phenomenon and TIP 
issues for years for Thanh Nien, one of Vietnam's leading news 
dailies. 
 
¶3. (SBU) According to Trang, 14,000 women in Can Tho province 
married foreigners from 2000 to 2004. (In 2004, Can Tho had a 
population of 1.1 million.). Ninety percent of these women 
married Taiwanese men; the bulk of the remainder married South 
Koreans.  Eighty percent of the women were from the countryside. 
Seventy percent said they married for economic reasons.  Roughly 
one in six women claimed they were pressured by their parents to 
marry foreign men. 
 
Traveling Matchmakers 
--------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Through her interviews of Vietnamese who returned from 
failed marriages in Taiwan, Trang said she was able to build a 
picture of the typical process in which local women are 
recruited.  Matchmakers play a key role.  They usually travel 
from house to house in the Can Tho countryside, asking if anyone 
wants to marry a Taiwanese man.  Matchmakers start recruiting in 
one area of a village and soon word spreads among the families 
about the "opportunities" to marry a foreigner. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The foreign man generally pays the matchmaker a 
sizeable fee.  In turn, the matchmaker gives a small amount of 
money to the family of the woman; Trang approximates between 
three and five million VND (USD 190 to USD 315). While the 
family is aware ahead of time that they will receive very little 
money up front, poor families are eager to marry their daughters 
off to foreigners because of the prospects that the women will 
be able to support the family through remittances. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Trang believes that the majority of women who marry 
foreigners have no more than a sixth grade education. The lack 
of education combined with lack of economic opportunity creates 
an environment where women see marriages to foreigners as a way 
out.  Trung cited a recent survey conducted by the city of Can 
Tho in which 2000 brides were asked about their motivations for 
marrying a foreigner.  Two thirds said they wanted to marry a 
Taiwanese man because they were jobless and wanted to solve 
financial problems.  Roughly the same amount admitted that they 
had no clear idea of what their lives would be overseas. 
 
Making a Match 
-------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) After being recruited, Trang said there are generally 
three ways in which the "matchmaking" process is handled: 
 
-- In the village, the Vietnamese woman is shown a picture of 
her prospective husband by the matchmaker and chooses to marry 
the man based on the picture.  If the woman agrees to the 
marriage, the matchmaker will complete the local Vietnamese 
legal paperwork, which is then signed by the bride. In these 
cases, the matchmaker will arrange for the groom to travel to 
Can Tho for the wedding. 
 
-- The woman travels to HCMC's District 10 to meet the groom and 
hold the marriage ceremony.  According to Trang, District 10 -- 
a center of the Chinese community in HCMC -- is where the 
matchmakers bring together the bulk foreign grooms and their 
Vietnamese brides. 
 
-- In other cases, the recruited woman will travel to HCMC where 
she will join other potential brides. As prospective grooms 
arrive, the woman will join a line-up from which the foreigner 
will choose a woman to marry.  If chosen, the necessary 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000456  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
paperwork will be completed and the marriage ceremony will take 
place immediately. 
 
Bait and Switch? 
---------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Trang claimed to be aware of cases where, on the day of 
her wedding, the prospective bride finds that her groom is not 
the man in the photograph that she was shown back in Can Tho. 
The substitute was invariably old or disabled.  However, Trung 
was not aware of any cases where the women backed out of the 
marriage. 
 
Hidden Societal Costs 
--------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Trung argues that the phenomenon of Vietnamese women 
marrying foreigners has transformed demographics of some parts 
of Can Tho province.  A case in point is Can Tho's Thot Not 
district, which is locally known as "Taiwan Island."  Trang 
claims that in this district, every family has at least one 
daughter married to a Taiwanese man.  The process started when 
one family had two daughters who married Taiwanese men.  With 
money that these women sent home, the family was able to build a 
very large house. When neighbors saw what happened, everyone 
wanted their daughters to marry Taiwanese.  Trang claims that 60 
percent of women in the district have married Taiwanese men. 
 
¶10. (SBU) In neighboring Dong Thap province, Trang said there 
are many cases of Vietnamese women marrying Taiwanese, 
divorcing, and then returning to Vietnam along with their 
Taiwan-born children.  Some of these women face difficulty 
reintegrating.  For example, she believes that there are up to 
500 children who do not have birth certificates or other 
official documentation.  As a result, the children do not have 
access to free medical care, cannot participate in vaccination 
programs and cannot be registered to attend school in Vietnam. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Trang acknowledges that, according to the information 
she has available, the marriages are perfectly legal under 
Vietnamese law.  However, she frets that the young, uneducated 
women that are typically involved have inaccurate and 
preconceived notions about what their lives outside of Vietnam 
will be like.  At a bare minimum, the women's inability to speak 
the local language in her new home country often leads to a 
stressed marriage and a life of isolation.  She said that, in 
some cases, spousal abuse is an issue. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Trang said, that it also appears that, once in Taiwan, 
some Vietnamese women find that they are pressured into 
prostitution or servitude.  Trang tells the story of Nguyen Thi 
Phuong, from Vi Thanh District in Can Tho, who returned from 
Taiwan in mid-September 2005. Phuong married a Taiwanese man 
when she was 19 and moved to Taiwan.  Not long after, she gave 
birth to a child.  Ten days after the delivery, her husband 
forced her to return to work, taking care of some 700 pigs on a 
pig farm.  Her husband beat her every time a pig died. Her 
husband cut off all of her phone contact to Vietnam.  She tried 
to contact Taiwanese police, but spoke no Taiwanese.  For 
reasons unclear to Trang, after 3 years she failed to obtain her 
Taiwanese citizenship and was deported back to Vietnam.  Trang 
tells the story of another unnamed woman who married a Taiwanese 
man and later was forced to sleep with all three of her 
brothers-in-law. 
 
Seeking a More Emphatic Government Response 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) Trang says that the Women's Union in Can Tho needs to 
do more to educate women in the countryside about the potential 
dangers of marrying foreigners.  She acknowledged that the 
Women's Union and the Can Tho Police do meet and work together, 
but, as far as she can see, concrete output has been minimal 
thus far.  She said that it was imperative that the government 
respond more aggressively as the reach of matchmakers into Can 
Tho probably would increase in the future.  The opening of a new 
airport in Can Tho by the end of 2006 and the building of a 
bridge connecting Can Tho with the highway to HCMC could lead to 
more matchmakers and perspective foreign husbands visiting the 
province in the future. 
Winnick