Some 3,000 Vietnamese women and children were suspected to have been trafficked to Laos and Cambodia in 2015, the Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper reported.

Major general Phan Van Vinh, head of the ministry's C45 department delivers his speech at the yesterday conference. — Photo tuoitre.vn

The women were sold into prostitution and children were forced into hard physical labour.

These details were released at a conference held yesterday in HCM City attended by delegates from Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia. The conference was intended to summarise the crackdown of criminal activities along the border among the three countries last year.

Major General Ho Si Tien, head of The Police Department of Criminal Investigation in Social Order (C45) under the Ministry of Public Security, said that human trafficking victims found along the border among three countries accounted for 6 per cent of total cases found in Viet Nam each year.

The victims are mainly from the provinces of Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Dak Nong, apart from Binh Phuoc, Dien Bien, Son La, Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh, he said.

Colonel Le Tien Nam, deputy head of Police Office of Criminal Investigation in Social Order (C45), under the Nghe An Police Department, said that several human traffickers were once themselves victims of human trafficking.

They became human traffickers because they knew how to con people, he said.

Traffickers would keep identification cards of the victims. The victims were not allowed to bring money or valuables. All this was aimed at preventing them from escaping, he said.

Statistics from the C45 department showed that 87 human trafficking rings discovered along the border between Viet Nam and Cambodia and 50 human trafficking rings between Viet Nam and Laos.

Speaking at the conference, Major General Phan Van Vinh, head of the ministry's C45 department said the situation of trafficking human via borders was very complicated. To cheat women and children, the traffickers used a lot of tricks, he said.

Vinh ordered the Vietnamese police force to closely co-operate with police in Laos and Cambodia to bring the situation under control.

VNS