Gia Lai takes drastic measures to fight cross-border human trafficking
In recent years, authorities and people of the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai have taken drastic measures to fight cross-border human trafficking.
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| Human trafficking victims rescued and welcomed home. (Photo: VNA) |
In the first week of July, seven young people in Kloong village, Ia O commune, Ia Grai district, who were victims of cross-border human trafficking, were rescued and brought home safe and sound.
Taking advantage of the gullibility and lack of understanding of ethnic minority people in the Central Highlands provinces and the difficult economic situation of those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Gia Lai, there appears a trick of offering "decent work and high salary" to bring others out of the country illegally.
Many ethnic minority victims in Gia Lai province have fallen victim to brokers in the cross-border human trafficking rings.
Puih Thai, 28, one of the seven rescued victims, said he had got in touch with Tran Quang Quyet, 21, a native of the region’s Kon Tum province, on Facebook, who then offered to help him get a decent job with a high salary in Cambodia.
However, once they arrived in Cambodia, they were forced to do all the hard work while their employers frequently beat them with rods and power cables. They were also threatened with being sold away or killed.
Struggling to survive, Puih Thai asked to be sent home. The people who had tricked and sold him to Cambodia requested him to contact his family and pay a bail of 90 million VND (3,800 USD).
Quyet then gave himself up at Gia Lai province’s Ia O border station. Currently, he is being held in custody to serve an investigation.
Quyet’s accomplice, Phan Ngoc Duc, was found to directly connect with several people abroad to take many ethnic minority locals to Cambodia illegally.
On July 5, Gia Lai police decided to launch legal proceedings against the case and Duc, and arrested him for charges of human trafficking.
Duc confessed that he had sold seven victims in Ia O commune to one person in Cambodia, earning over 300 million VND and divided to Quyet 128 million VND.
Colonel Ngo Gia Cuong of Gia Lai police warned locals not to believe in recruitment information on social networks, but thoroughly learn about the job content and specific address to avoid being deceived.
He stressed the need to intensify dissemination of information to every household to raise ethnic locals’ awareness, and strengthen patrols and coordination in border areas.
In order to prevent the recurrence of labour fraud in the locality, the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is developing a training programme that is close to the forecast of the labour demand of enterprises inside and outside the province. The province is also creating opportunities for the poor and ethnic minority people to borrow loans to develop production and business.
(Source: VNA)
