giang
10-22-2007, 11:12 PM
Nearly five years after being abducted and sold to a man in China, a Vietnamese woman has escaped and reunited with her family in Hue.
Le Thi Hai Van’s story begins the way many human trafficking victims’ stories do.
The youngest of four children from a poverty-stricken family in Hue, Van had to drop out of school after eighth grade and was sent by her parents to apprentice as a tailor in Ho Chi Minh City.
In 2003, the 19-year-old was approached by a woman as she walked home from work one evening.
The stranger spoke with a thick northern accent and said she lived in Hanoi.
The woman claimed she was very rich and needed a worker for her garment shop.
She told Van that if the young girl wanted to work in Hanoi, she’d pay her expenses plus a VND1.2 million (nearly US$80) monthly salary.
Van found the suggestion attractive and asked her neighbor and friend, 19-year-old Tran Thi Vui, to go with her.
Knowing her parents would never approve of her going to Hanoi to work, Van didn’t tell them. She thought they would understand once she sent money later.
Van and Vui met their “employer” at a cafe and departed on the long bus ride to Hanoi.
After more than two days on the coach, Van began to wonder why they had not reached Hanoi.
They changed buses several times and Van said they traveled on dangerous looking mountain roads.
On the fifth day, the group got off the coach and stayed at a house where everyone spoke Chinese. Van and Vui then realized they had been taken across the border.
Three days later, two women sold Van to a Chinese man for 5,000 yuans and Vui to another man.
Meanwhile, Van’s parents wrote to the police, who said they could not help.
Years of misery Van was bought by a man around 30 years old. Van said the man, named Leng Xinh (Vietnamese transcription), brought her to a rural village in Guangdong Province and forced her to become his wife.
There, she lived with his family in a community with 10 houses isolated in a mountainous forest. Van said she was too afraid to run away.
Van said she missed her home but after a year began to learn the local language and gave birth to a baby boy.
In 2006, when the boy reached three, Leng Xinh took Van to Zhongshan City so they could find jobs at an industrial park.
He gave her a counterfeit identity card, so she could work at an electric wire factory.
They worked a few kilometers apart but Xinh kept Van under tight supervision.
At the factory, Van made friends with another worker whose husband was a teacher. This Chinese couple silently helped her plan an escape.
After working there almost two years, last month Xinh got sick and had to go home. Taking her chance, Van gathered her savings and called her family from her friend’s telephone.
She had made sure to remember her parent’s phone number through all the years in hopes of calling home someday.
She then bought a hand phone to keep in touch while they arranged a rendezvous point.
Rescue
Receiving Van’s phone call, her parents cried for joy but didn’t have enough money to go to China.
Van’s elder sister and a brother-in-law decided to take out a VND30 million (about US$1,800) loan and left for China.
Arriving at Mong Cai border between Vietnam and China, they obtained tourist visas, hired an interpreter and went directly to Guangzhou. They kept in contact with Van on the phone and met her at the Zhongshan bus station.
Back at the border, Van crossed through the forest while her family used the official crossing. Van was finally reunited with her family last Sunday, October 14.
Though Van has arrived home, she still suffers from trauma and nightmares. She doesn’t know what happened to her friend Vui. Her parents are poor and sick and her family has no way to pay the VND30 million debt.
(from Thanh Nien Newspaper)
http://www.thanhniennews.com/images/newsimages/gap-me-294-07.jpg
Le Thi Hai Van’s story begins the way many human trafficking victims’ stories do.
The youngest of four children from a poverty-stricken family in Hue, Van had to drop out of school after eighth grade and was sent by her parents to apprentice as a tailor in Ho Chi Minh City.
In 2003, the 19-year-old was approached by a woman as she walked home from work one evening.
The stranger spoke with a thick northern accent and said she lived in Hanoi.
The woman claimed she was very rich and needed a worker for her garment shop.
She told Van that if the young girl wanted to work in Hanoi, she’d pay her expenses plus a VND1.2 million (nearly US$80) monthly salary.
Van found the suggestion attractive and asked her neighbor and friend, 19-year-old Tran Thi Vui, to go with her.
Knowing her parents would never approve of her going to Hanoi to work, Van didn’t tell them. She thought they would understand once she sent money later.
Van and Vui met their “employer” at a cafe and departed on the long bus ride to Hanoi.
After more than two days on the coach, Van began to wonder why they had not reached Hanoi.
They changed buses several times and Van said they traveled on dangerous looking mountain roads.
On the fifth day, the group got off the coach and stayed at a house where everyone spoke Chinese. Van and Vui then realized they had been taken across the border.
Three days later, two women sold Van to a Chinese man for 5,000 yuans and Vui to another man.
Meanwhile, Van’s parents wrote to the police, who said they could not help.
Years of misery Van was bought by a man around 30 years old. Van said the man, named Leng Xinh (Vietnamese transcription), brought her to a rural village in Guangdong Province and forced her to become his wife.
There, she lived with his family in a community with 10 houses isolated in a mountainous forest. Van said she was too afraid to run away.
Van said she missed her home but after a year began to learn the local language and gave birth to a baby boy.
In 2006, when the boy reached three, Leng Xinh took Van to Zhongshan City so they could find jobs at an industrial park.
He gave her a counterfeit identity card, so she could work at an electric wire factory.
They worked a few kilometers apart but Xinh kept Van under tight supervision.
At the factory, Van made friends with another worker whose husband was a teacher. This Chinese couple silently helped her plan an escape.
After working there almost two years, last month Xinh got sick and had to go home. Taking her chance, Van gathered her savings and called her family from her friend’s telephone.
She had made sure to remember her parent’s phone number through all the years in hopes of calling home someday.
She then bought a hand phone to keep in touch while they arranged a rendezvous point.
Rescue
Receiving Van’s phone call, her parents cried for joy but didn’t have enough money to go to China.
Van’s elder sister and a brother-in-law decided to take out a VND30 million (about US$1,800) loan and left for China.
Arriving at Mong Cai border between Vietnam and China, they obtained tourist visas, hired an interpreter and went directly to Guangzhou. They kept in contact with Van on the phone and met her at the Zhongshan bus station.
Back at the border, Van crossed through the forest while her family used the official crossing. Van was finally reunited with her family last Sunday, October 14.
Though Van has arrived home, she still suffers from trauma and nightmares. She doesn’t know what happened to her friend Vui. Her parents are poor and sick and her family has no way to pay the VND30 million debt.
(from Thanh Nien Newspaper)
http://www.thanhniennews.com/images/newsimages/gap-me-294-07.jpg