VZCZCXRO1338
PP RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #0191/01 0600949
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 010949Z MAR 07
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2166
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 1551
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH PRIORITY 0024
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 2339

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000191 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL CVIS KWMN TIP ELAB SMIG SOCI TW VM
SUBJECT: MEKONG DELTA PROVINCES STRUGGLE TO COMBAT TIP 
 
REF: A. HCMC 90 B) 06 HCMC 521 C) 06 HCMC 437 D) 06 HANOI 
 
     ¶B. 507 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000191  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Officials in the Mekong Delta told us they were 
conducting three investigations of trafficking-in-persons 
(TIP) involving at least 35 women trafficked to Malaysia, 
Cambodia and, possibly, South Korea for sex exploitation 
and forced marriages.  Six suspects had been arrested and 
an Interpol arrest warrant issued for the ringleader of the 
group smuggling women to Malaysia.  Provincial officials 
also detailed a range of assistance programs -- some in 
cooperation with U.S. and other international NGOs -- to 
prevent at-risk girls from falling prey to traffickers and 
to help victims seeking to reintegrate back into their 
communities.  However, critics say that police are not 
proactive and are overly reliant on victims stepping 
forward in their TIP investigations.  Controls along the 
Cambodian border are also weak.  Provincial officials 
acknowledge that their programs for returnees have only 
assisted a very small number of victims; many more appear 
to return to Vietnam from Cambodia through unofficial 
channels and do not access GVN assistance programs.  A 
U.S.-NGO representative operating in the Mekong complained 
that the GVN and the GOC are not doing enough to ensure the 
rapid repatriation of Vietnamese victims in shelters in 
Cambodia.  Some of these women allegedly return to 
prostitution in Cambodia.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During a visit to the provinces of Hau Giang, Can 
Tho and An Giang February 1 - 3, PolOff met with provincial 
and police officials, Women's Union representatives, 
journalists and NGO activists to discuss TIP issues in the 
Mekong Delta.  Hau Giang and Can Tho authorities confirmed 
ref A reporting that in January they had disrupted a 
criminal ring responsible for trafficking 30 women from the 
region to Malaysia.  Hau Giang police told us that they 
launched the investigation in July 2006 when six 
trafficking victims escaped captivity in Malaysia and 
returned on their own to Vietnam.  Some came forward to 
report the trafficking ring to local authorities.  Four 
individuals from Hau Giang, Can Tho, An Giang, and Lam Dong 
provinces are in detention awaiting trial (NFI).  The 
alleged ring leader, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nga is a Vietnamese 
national married to a Malaysian.  Her whereabouts are 
unknown.  Hau Giang and Can Tho police are working with 
Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant for Nga. 
According to our police contacts, they are seeking to 
identify and repatriate the remaining 24 women trafficked 
to Malaysia.  Police said that of the 30 trafficked-women 
six were from Hau Giang, nine from Can Tho, seven from Vinh 
Long, four from An Giang, two from Kien Giang and one each 
from Soc Trang and Dong Thap provinces. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Hau Giang authorities also said that they are 
investigating a second trafficking case involving two Hau 
Giang men who have been charged with trafficking four women 
to Cambodia as sex workers.  The victims managed to escape, 
return to Vietnam, and file complaints against the 
traffickers.  Additionally, Can Tho police officials told 
us that they opened separate investigations of allegations 
of a woman trafficked to Singapore and another involving 
possible sham marriages between local women and South 
Korean men.  Can Tho police would not provide any further 
details.  (Per ref B, the Singapore case may involve a 
woman who married a Singaporean man who then attempted to 
sell her to another family after getting her to Singapore.) 
In a separate phone conversation, the HCMC Ministry of 
Public Security (MPS) official who oversees TIP 
investigations for southern Vietnam told us that the South 
Korean marriage case revolves around suspicions of fake 
marriages between women from the Mekong Delta and South 
Korean men that may be masking TIP activities.  In a joint 
investigation, Can Tho and Lam Dong provincial police 
reportedly broke up a ring operating out of Dalat, in Lam 
Dong province, which was brokering suspect marriages.  No 
South Korean men were arrested because it is not illegal in 
Vietnam to marry a foreigner.  The individuals who 
allegedly arranged these marriages have not been identified 
and located, according to our MPS contact.  Officials from 
the border province of An Giang told us that they have no 
on-going anti-TIP investigations.  (The GVN considers An 
Giang a trafficking "hot spot" because of rural poverty and 
its proximity to the Cambodian border.) 
 
More Than An Ounce of Prevention Needed? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Officials in the three Mekong Delta provinces 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000191  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
stressed that prevention is a major component of their 
anti-TIP strategy.  They maintained that they conduct anti- 
TIP information campaigns in schools and other grassroots 
outlets.  Provincial Women's Unions and Department of 
Labor, Invalid, and Social Affairs (DOLISA) offer at-risk 
girls and women vocational training and financial 
assistance, such as micro-loans.  In 2006, the Hau Giang 
DOLISA identified 11 at-risk women who were contemplating 
leaving the province with no set plans.  DOLISA provided 
them with small micro-loans.  As a result, they remain in 
the province and run their own home-based businesses.  Hau 
Giang is working with the International Labor Organization 
(ILO) on a USD 50,000 project to provide preventative 
public information, vocational training, and financial 
assistance to at-risk girls in four communes in the 
province. Provincial officials said that they also provide 
reintegration assistance in the form of medical care, 
including treatment for diseases, psychological counseling, 
vocational training, financial assistance, and follow-up 
care for any trafficked women who voluntarily return to 
Vietnam or who are repatriated. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) An Giang officials praised the work of the NGO- 
run An Giang and Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of 
Trafficking (ADAPT) program.  ADAPT, which is partly-funded 
by USAID and run by U.S.-based NGOs, has focused on TIP 
prevention by assisting at-risk women and their families. 
ADAPT has provided scholarships to 300 at-risk girls 
between the ages of approximately 10 and 14 to attend 
public school or receive vocational training.  Two 
beneficiaries we spoke with told us that their families 
earned about USD 1.5 a day from rice farming and other 
menial labor.  Each girl was the only child in the family 
attending school.  Both girls said they would have had to 
drop out of school were it not for the ADAPT scholarship 
program. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) However, two leading Mekong Delta-based 
journalists told us that the current level of government 
and NGO efforts were insufficient to stem the TIP problem 
in the Mekong.  They asserted that "large numbers" of 
victims continue to be trafficked despite government claims 
that they have instituted effective prevention measures.  A 
porous border with Cambodia is one unresolved TIP problem. 
They noted that the few official border crossings are 
understaffed and the Vietnam border guards are over-worked 
and vulnerable to bribes.  Local government inability to 
improve the economic conditions for vulnerable women and 
their families was another concern.  One journalist 
observed that very few Vietnamese women return from 
Cambodia, even if they escape the sex trade there, because 
they can earn more in Cambodia working legitimately -- as 
much as USD 5 per day  -- than they can back home.  The 
journalists praised the TIP prevention programs offered by 
international NGOs, such as ADAPT, but cautioned that there 
are currently not enough such programs to assist the GVN. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Separately, Vuong Ngoc Diep (protect), overall 
coordinator for the ADAPT program, criticized the GVN's 
mechanism for properly identifying and repatriating 
returnees trafficked to Cambodia.  During a recent visit to 
Cambodia, she visited a number of shelters for trafficked 
women that were "full of Vietnamese waiting to return." 
Because they lack space and resources, including native- 
Vietnamese speakers, over-18 women frequently return to the 
street.  (Vuong noted that underage girls are required by 
Cambodian law to remain in shelters).  According to Vuong, 
women who seek official repatriation to Vietnam must endure 
a cumbersome bureaucratic process that can take up to 
several years to complete, in part because they lack 
identification documents.  Vuong said that virtually all 
trafficking victims make their own way back to Vietnam or 
fall back into prostitution in Cambodia.  Those who do 
return independently generally are unaccounted for and are 
unaware of government-reintegration services in their home 
provinces. 
 
Where Are The Returnees? 
------------------------ 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Although GVN statistics indicate that up to 
50,000 women (ref D) from the Mekong Delta may have been 
trafficked over the past decade , local official in the 
three provinces we visited acknowledged that very few step 
forward to seek help.  Many of those who do come forward 
eventually leave their home provinces due to stigma at the 
village level.  GVN officials state that most go to HCMC. 
Hau Giang records eight official returns since 1998.  In 
Can Tho in 2006, five additional women registered for 
reintegration assistance, bringing the total number of 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000191  003 OF 003 
 
 
returnees identified by Can Tho Police to 42 since 1997.  A 
representative of the An Giang province Women's Union told 
us that in 2006 the province reported only five official 
returnees who were trafficked to Cambodia; one woman is 
receiving psychological treatment, and the other four women 
are receiving vocational training and financial assistance. 
The Women's Union representative noted that they have 
recorded 69 returnees since 2003. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Our visit indicates that the GVN has made some 
additional progress in combating TIP in the Mekong Delta. 
Provincial police are pursuing TIP cases more aggressively. 
Similarly, provincial authorities in the three provinces we 
visited were able to outline in much greater detail a range 
of anti-TIP programs that they have put in place in 
accordance with the GVN's anti-TIP National Program of 
Action.  Local government coordination and cooperation with 
NGO groups on TIP issues also appears strong. 
 
¶10. (SBU) That said, much more work remains.  Although the 
provinces have more of a framework in place for combating 
TIP than they had in the past, proper implementation 
remains a question.  Police still appear to key on victims' 
testimony before they launch investigations against 
traffickers.  Although provincial governments have support 
systems in place for victims, they apparently are reaching 
only a handful of victims that may have returned from 
Cambodia.  NGO grassroots programs appear effective but are 
very limited in scope.  We defer to Embassy Phnom Penh to 
evaluate claims that significant numbers of Vietnamese 
trafficking victims are stuck in Cambodia awaiting 
repatriation.  Moreover, the absence of comprehensive data 
on the number of trafficking victims or a large, 
identifiable flow of returnees to Vietnam suggests that 
much more work needs to be done to assess accurately the 
overall magnitude of the trafficking problem in the Mekong 
Delta.  End comment. 
Winnick