VietNamNet Bridge – Two children were returned to their families in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak in April after a week of suffering from forced labour in HCM City.

A teenager in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong tells reporters about her experiences being forced to work and locked up in a textile manufacturing unit in HCM City. — Photo baogiaothong.vn

Sung A Sinh, 11, and Thao A Do, 12, were taken to a textile manufacturer in HCM City by an acquaintance of their families on March 23. The man promised Sinh’s and Do’s parents that they would be doing “textile manufacturing jobs” and get paid VND13 million (US$570) per year.    

“He made the job sound so easy,” said Hoang Thi Tong, Sinh’s mother. “Our family was going through a rough time, so I decided to let him take Sinh away to find jobs.”

Once they arrived in the city, Sinh and Do were forced to go begging on the streets and got beaten constantly. They ran away, but got lost until a civil defence official in Binh Thanh District found them and took them to the People’s Committee of Pham Van Hai Commune for shelter.

The two teenagers were returned to their families on April 6. Sinh was re-admitted to the Cu Pui 2 elementary school he had been attending, said Nguyen Van Tam, chairman of the Cu Pui People’s Committee.

Taking advantage of their low education level and poverty, human traffickers often trick parents in Central Highland provinces into letting their children go to big cities to find jobs to support their families.

Twenty four teenagers aged 13-16 in Dak Lak Province’s Cu Pui Commune, and 18 teenagers aged 11-17 in Dak Nong Province’s Quang Phu Commune were reported dropping out of school and going to work in HCM City and the southern Binh Duong, Dong Nai provinces since the beginning of this year, according to Giao Thong (Transport) newspaper.

The jobs they got were never as good as promised. Thao Thi Giong, 14, in Quang Phu Commune and her friends were told they would be doing textile manufacturing jobs, got paid VND16-20 million ($710-890) per year and provided with accommodation, but that was not how it turned out exactly.

“We had to fold, package and transport heavy clothes manually from early morning until 11 pm,” Giong said. “We also got locked up, were not allowed to go out, and got shouted at when asking to quit.”

Giong, Sinh and Do were lucky to have been found and returned to their families. The 13-year-old daughter of Le Van Toa in Dak Lak Province sometimes called him and said she was being forced to work “like a slave”, but he could not take her home because both of them did not know where she had been taken to.

Although child trafficking has been a pressing issue in the Central Highlands since 2014, local authorities were met with several obstacles when tackling the situation.

Chau Ru Ni, police chief of Quang Phu Commune, said that it is hard to get hold of the human traffickers since they always approached local residents directly with fake job posts and labour contracts without seeking the authorities’ permission.

The Central Highland provinces are ripe with immigrants from the northern region who spread sparingly across the area, said an official from Dak Lak Province’s Krong Bong District.

“It’s hard to manage them due to the differences in their customs and ways of living with the rest of the community,” he told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

These people are often tricked into working not only in difference provinces but also abroad; some were sold to China, he added.

Apart from the authorities’ efforts, it requires participation from local humanitarian organisations and unions to raise awareness on human trafficking among the local communities, the police of Dak Nong Province’s Krong No District told vov.vn.

Source: VNS