The statement was made by David Knight, Chief of IOM Mission in Vietnam, at a workshop in Hanoi on July 30, to review the implementation of the national action plan on anti-trafficking during 2016-2018 and discuss the revised Criminal Code.
The event, co-organised by the IOM and the US Embassy in Vietnam, with technical assistance from the relevant government ministries and authorities, aimed to observe the World Day against Trafficking in Persons that falls on July 30.
According to David Knight, human trafficking exists in every country and every sector of the economy. Every year, millions of migrants are trafficked internally and cross-border to eventually become victims of forced labour. It is estimated that around 20 million people are victims of forced labour, including victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Praising Vietnam’s efforts, the IOM official also stressed that the country still has a lot to do as there remain gaps between the provincial and district levels in securing human and financial resources, tools to identify and protect trafficked victims, as well as promoting investigations and prosecuting offenders involved in trafficking.
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David Knight, Chief of International Organisation for Migration Mission in Vietnam, speaks at the event. (Photo: tiengchuong.vn)
Lieutenant Colonel Pham Mai Hien, Deputy Head of Office 9 under the Ministry of Public Security’s General Department of Police, said that the national action plan on anti-trafficking by 2020 includes five projects, setting specific objectives to disseminate the law in order to raise public awareness and skills related to the prevention and combat against human trafficking and strengthen the fight against the crime, as well as assisting the returned victims and promoting international cooperation in the field.
During 2011-2015, the functional forces detected 2,205 trafficking cases, with 3,516 subjects and 4495 victims. In 2017, 376 cases were detected with over 900 victims. Particularly, in the first six months of 2018, 236 victims trafficked by 126 offenders.
According to Senior Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Van Trinh, Deputy Head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Office under the Ministry of Public Security’s Criminal Police Department, the crime is predicted to become more complicated with increasingly sophisticated tricks and transnational activities by human trafficking criminals in the future.
He urged for joint efforts from the authorities concerned at all levels and the whole society in order to improve the effectiveness of the prevention and combat of trafficking in humans, adding that strengthening communication campaigns is an important measure to prevent and curb the rise in the crime.
Localities should integrate the prevention and combat of criminals and human trafficking with the implementation of political tasks and socio-economic development policies, while raising public awareness on obeying the law and improving responsibility in actively preventing and participating in criminal denunciation, Trinh added.
Since 2016, the Prime Minister has decided to select July 30 as the Vietnam’s Day against Human Trafficking, coinciding with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons set by the United Nations in 2013.
