VietNamNet Bridge – On January 29, the Department of Social Evil Prevention of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said that there are about 30,000 prostitutes and 171,400 drug addicts in Vietnam.

HCM City wants to gather sensitive services into one zone to prevent prostitution
Male and gay prostitution is increasing

Disguised restaurants in Quat Lam, Nam Dinh, where prostitution is rampant.

Prostitutes and drug addicts seem to be younger and the above social evils are increasingly complexly. In 2012, the country had to spend over VND70 billion ($3.5 million) for the prevention of prostitution.

Mr. Le Duc Hien, Vice chief of the Department of Social Evil Prevention, said that in 2012, social evils still occurred very complexly in many provinces and cities, in the rural and mountainous areas. The modes of operation were very diverse. Information technology was used to form prostitution rings with large-scale.

The number of drug addicts increased by 7.7% compared to 2011 (about 12,900 people), bringing the total to 171,400 addicts. The number of addicts living in the community accounted for 65 percent of the total.

According to the National Committee for Drug Prevention, the number of drug addicts has increased by 5.3% and the number of drug-related crimes increased from 3 to 5 times higher than five years ago.

The committee also reported that Vietnam currently has 115,836 businesses with conditional services, with over 68,463 female staff (up by 6,529 people compared with 2011). About 5,861 businesses and 9,741 female employees are suspected of involving in prostitution.

In 2012, the interdisciplinary inspection teams examined 30,259 business establishments that offer sensitive services and found 10,964 violations. In particular, 8,140 businesses were fined, totaling over VND40 billion ($2 million) (50% up over 2011).

The action program to prevent and combat prostitution in 2011-2015 was issued, but many provinces have not carried out the program yet. This is one of the reasons that the situation of prostitution increased, especially in large cities since July 2012, the time for releasing prostitutes from rehabilitation centers.

Lao Dong