Escaped victim’s letter helps nab traffickers in Vietnam
A letter written by a 20-year-old Ho Chi Minh City girl has helped police break up a gang trafficking Vietnamese girls to Macau for prostitution and nab the culprits.
The gang’s mastermind, Nguyen Bich Tuyen, 25, was arrested last Saturday after a three-month surveillance.
Nguyen Thi Khoi An, 34, of Ho Chi Minh City and Tuyen’s brother, Nguyen Van Thuan, 22, were also arrested.
In 1999 Tuyen left Hau Giang province for Vung Tau, a tourist city, to work as masseuse. A year later a friend introduced her to a Chinese man who took her to a massage parlor in Macau for a promised payment of US$2,500.
After working there for a year, she paid the money and earned some more to returned to Vietnam and resume her massage job in Vung Tau.
In 2003 Tuyen once again went to the Chinese territory, this time to work in a brothel. There she met two Vietnamese madams, one visiting from Hanoi and another residing in Macau, who promised to give her $300 for every girl she brought from Vietnam.
Tuyen has admitted to the police that she took seven girls, including two of her relatives.
In Macau the girls have to work hard to return the ‘fees’ of $2,500 to the two madams. They earn HKD250 (US$38.8) from each client.
One such girl, who refused to do sex work, managed to return home after paying the $2,500 and sent the letter to the police which has helped bring the gang to book.
By Dam Huy - Thanh Nien - September 3, 2006.
|