China's booming trade in Vietnamese brides
HO CHI MINH CITY - She met her future husband at a downtown
cafeteria, but even that beginning was shorn of romance. Li, just 17, had
been practically dragged there by her mother, who had decided to marry
her off to a Taiwanese stranger - in exchange for US$3,500.
The newly-weds were soon off to Taiwan, where Li tried to play wife to
her 50-year-old husband. He, however, had other things in mind and
forced her to have sex with his "brothers". After 10 months of being
wife-cum-sex worker, Li managed to escape and alert local police.
Li is only one of the growing number of Vietnamese women, many of
them still in their teens, being forced into becoming "family wives" after
getting married to men from Taiwan and mainland China. According to
Vietnamese authorities, some are even sold by their husbands to pimps
or simply to just another "owner".
To be sure, there are Taiwanese and mainland Chinese men who marry
Vietnamese women and are content to have them only as "traditional
wives". Take the case of Tai, a 50-year-old Taiwanese who has just
married a Vietnamese woman half his age. He explains why he flew so
far just to find a bride: "I could never get married at home since most of
the women I knew were looking down on me."
Vietnamese authorities, however, say that reports of Vietnamese women
being turned into "family wives" by their Taiwanese husbands are
growing. At the same time, they say that even "normal" unions are
problematic. More often than not, these marriages are made through
marriage brokers - an illegal trade in Vietnam - and also involve some
form of payment to the bride's family.
A Taiwanese groom typically pays between US$5,000 and US$10,000
to marry a Vietnamese woman. This includes a dowry for the bride's
family, wedding expenses and a matchmaking fee, which costs upwards
of $1,000. The "wives" normally receive a small percentage of the cash
paid to the brokers.
The marriage brokers evade the law by operating within legitimate travel
agencies or law firms. They arrange everything from the initial
introduction to catering the wedding to passport documentation. The
grooms-to-be choose their potential mates from photographs, then fly to
Ho Chi Minh City to meet them at mixers organized by matchmakers.
Most of the Taiwanese men who come over seeking mates are more
than 50 years old, from middle and lower class rural families and with
minimal education. Their would-be brides, meanwhile, are desperate to
escape from poverty - or at least their families are - and see marriage to
a foreigner as a shortcut to a better life.
The Taiwanese immigration office in Ho Chi Minh City says that it
handles between 30 and 40 visa applications a day. But unofficial
estimates put the number of Vietnamese women who have married
Taiwanese men in recent years at more than 17,000. The Taiwanese
office here also says that interviews with visa applicants last just five
minutes, and approval is virtually guaranteed. One visa officer says that
they really have no right to question the motives behind these marriages.
He says, "If they insist [on approval], you have no choice, you just say
yes."
Marriages between Vietnamese women and mainland Chinese men go
through a different route, but many share the same unhappy endings as
numerous Vietnamese-Taiwanese unions. Ta Thi Minh Ly, head of the
Legal Assistance Department of the Ministry of Justice, says that in 1998
alone authorities found 3,354 women being sold to China through the
northern port city of Hai Phong, 1,310 through the Quang Ninh border
and another 3,000 through the Lang Son border.
"The problem is men in China are more numerous than women so they
are unable to find domestic wives," says Ly. "Vietnamese women are
trafficked there to meet demand. Some traffickers even woo innocent
girls and promise to marry them. Thus the girls, mostly from poor and
remote localities, are easily driven into their trap."
Truong Huu Quoc, who heads the Hanoi Police Department, describes
what is happening as "an adverse side of the market economy". He says
the slave trade rings are well-organized domestically and internationally.
He adds that the rings have ground contacts in many of the poor
provinces around Vietnam who deceive potential victims.
He says of the women - and children - who end up as unwilling brides in
China: "They lose everything - liberty, personalities and other rights."
A report released last year by the Ministry of Public Security confirms
the existence of this wife-trafficking, and cites statistics showing that at
least 22,000 women and children were "sent" to China from 1991 to
1999.
"The real figure could be much higher because in the past decade, China
has surged as a huge market for Vietnamese wives," says Quoc.
"Trafficking of Vietnamese women and children to China has increased
rapidly in recent years."
According to the ministry report, more than 11,000 of those women who
were tricked into going to China found their way home and told tales of
unbearable treatment at the hands of their husbands. These echo those of
women escaping their Taiwanese husbands.
Says the report: "Some Vietnamese women are forced to become
common wives for all the members of the husband's family. They are
even traded like goods."
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam - Inter Press Service, Asia Times - September 12, 2001.
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