Vietnam to crackdown on illegal marriage brokers
HANOI - Vietnam will launch a crackdown against brokers who arrange marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign men, state-controlled media reported.Prime Minister Phan Van Khai ordered relevant agencies to "discover and severely punish those organisations and individuals involved in illegal marriage brokerages" in a directive signed Tuesday, the Liberated Saigon newspaper said.
A government campaign that will last until June is being launched to shut down the agencies that arrange for Vietnamese women to be introduced to foreigners seeking brides, it said. The agencies are typically paid a hefty fee by the men for arranging the marriages. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese women have married foreigners, especially Taiwanese men, in recent years, said an official at the Ministry of Justice. Local media have reported on multiple cases of abuse or exploitation of women after they moved to Taiwan.
The Associated Press - March 3, 2005
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