PM approves plan to implement ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons

Leaders of 10 ASEAN member States sign the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children on the occasion of the 27th ASEAN Summit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 21, 2015. Source: VGP

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has given the green light to a plan on the implementation of the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons (ACTIP), especially women and children, reported VNA.

The plan sets a goal for Vietnam to boost international cooperation and fulfil its responsibility as an ASEAN member state in anti-human trafficking efforts.

Ministries, sectors, and localities are in charge of carrying out communications campaigns on the content of the ACTIP and legal documents on trafficking prevention and control.

They are also tasked with incorporating the ACTIP into national and local laws and regulations. Increasing international cooperation, protecting victims, and cracking down on the vice are also key missions.

The plan is to improve the effectiveness of the receipt, verification, and identification of victims of trafficking and to implement measures to protect the safety of victims and their families, whose information will be kept confidential in accordance with the law, among others assignments.

Related agencies and sectors also have responsibility for making laws and enforcing legal regulations on quickly rescuing, protecting, repatriating, and rehabilitating victims, while building programmes to ensure their livelihoods and rehabilitation.

Such responsibility also covers increasing efforts to investigate and prosecute traffickers, especially organised rings, and applying discipline commensurate with the nature and severity of this crime.

Vietnam is a human trafficking hotspot with the crime generating tens of billions of dollars annually, according to the Ministry of Public Security. Some Vietnamese women are also misled by fraudulent employment opportunities and sold to brothel operators on the borders of mainland China, Cambodia, Laos, and elsewhere in Asia, including Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.

The country has recorded over 3,400 victims of human trafficking since 2013, over 90% of them women, children and people from ethnic minority communities.

In the first half of 2020, the country reported 60 human trafficking cases of with 90 victims, mainly women and children. This marked a year-on-year drop of 31% in the number of cases and 37% in the number of victims.

Ngoc Diu