Man sentenced for human trafficking

Vu Duc Anh was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment by a HCMC court for recruiting Vietnamese women into prostitution and trafficking them to Malaysia to work as sex slaves. Five other accomplices received sentences ranging from two years to a suspended sentence of 11 years. "The human trafficking ring was brought to light when two of the victims who had been locked up in tiny rooms managed to escape and ask for help at the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia," reports Vietnam Panorama.

Human trafficking of impoverished and undereducated women and children from Vietnam has become a serious problems, the journal reports:

"Initial surveys by the Ministry of Police in 16 out of the total 64 cities and provinces across Vietnam detected 1,758 women and children trafficked abroad last year. Of these, 263 victims were of a very young age, including eleven children under the age of ten."

(Vietnam Panorama, Vietnam News Briefs, Nov. 12).