US embassy cable - 04HANOI3071

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 003071 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, EAP/BCLTV, EAP/RSP, INL/AAE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, KWMN, KCRM, ELAB, VM, OMIG, LABOR, TIP 
SUBJECT: VIETNAM: INTERIM TIP ASSESSMENT 
 
Refs: A. State 228459 B. Hanoi 2921 C. Hanoi 3021 
 
1. (U) This is the Vietnam mission's interim assessment of 
Vietnam's anti-Trafficking in Persons performance according 
to the three questions posed in reftel A. 
 
QUESTION A: PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) The Procuracy's new statistics office only 
assembles statistics on prosecutions, arrests and 
convictions twice per year.  As a result we have only been 
able to review the January-June figures for 2004.  We took 
the whole-year numbers for 2002 and 2003 and divided them in 
half to provide a comparison for the half-year 2004 data we 
received.  In TIP cases involving women (disaggregated using 
the section of Vietnamese TIP law dealing specifically with 
women) that comparison showed a drop of 31 percent in the 
number of cases investigated; 19 percent in the number of 
cases prosecuted; and one percent in the number of 
convictions compared to 2003.   In cases involving children, 
the comparison showed a drop of 28 percent in the number of 
cases investigated; 14 percent in the number of cases 
prosecuted; and 6 percent in the number of cases resulting 
in convictions.  (The number of actual defendants convicted, 
however, rose by a few percent.) 
 
TRAFFICKING CASES INVOLVING WOMEN 
 
               CY 2002   CY 2003   Jan-Jun 2004 
Investigations 
Cases          117       128       44 
Suspects       200       217       57 
 
Prosecutions 
Cases          77        92        37 
Suspects       125       168       55 
 
Convictions 
Cases          84        85        42 
Suspects       134       158       62 
 
TRAFFICKING CASES INVOLVING CHILDREN 
 
               CY 2002   CY 2003   Jan-Jun  2004 
Investigations 
Cases          45        45        16 
Suspects       66        77        18 
 
Prosecutions 
Cases          33        35        15 
Suspects       48        56        20 
 
Convictions 
Cases          31        30        14 
Suspects       49        46        24 
 
 
3. (SBU) Vietnam's capacity to collect accurate statistical 
data is limited, and its ability to analyze that data nearly 
nonexistent.  As a result, we cannot authoritatively explain 
the drop in investigations, prosecutions and convictions for 
trafficking in persons we have identified based on the 
statistics supplied by the Supreme People's Procuracy. 
 
Analysis of the numbers 
----------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) The Supreme People's Procuracy tells us that the 
smaller number of investigations and prosecutions is a sign 
of progress, indicating that GVN efforts to combat 
trafficking have been successful.  We suggest the following 
alternative possible explanations for the decline: 
 
-- Increased awareness in Ministry of Public Security (MPS) 
units tasked with investigating TIP.  The United Nations 
Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) believes that as 
understanding of TIP has improved in the key investigative 
units charged with combating trafficking, MPS has been able 
to differentiate better between trafficking and standard 
alien smuggling.  We find this a credible explanation, 
because the number of convictions for trafficking has not 
declined along with the number of investigations and 
prosecutions.  This tells us that MPS has become more 
efficient and concentrates its trafficking investigative 
resources on those cases likely to result in a conviction. 
A sustained rate of convictions in the second half of 2004 
for trafficking even considering the lower number of 
investigations and prosecutions would support this analysis. 
-- Greater care taken by traffickers.  UNODC also believes 
that the increased enforcement attention on traffickers has 
caused the traffickers to work harder to avoid getting 
caught.  According to Troels Vester, UNODC program officer 
in charge of the USG-funded project "Strengthening of the 
Legal and Law Enforcement Institutions in Preventing and 
Combating Trafficking in Persons in Viet Nam," in previous 
years, before the GVN's focus on trafficking, traffickers 
operated with impunity and did not bother to conceal 
themselves or their activities.  Now, Vester says, they are 
forced to take precautions and make it more difficult for 
the police to arrest and prosecute them.  This may account 
for some of the reduction, he added. 
 
-- Inadequate data collection.  MPS Colonel Hoang Van Lai 
(protect) noted that the statistics on trafficking 
investigations and prosecutions come from investigating 
offices throughout Vietnam, and added that the protocol for 
collecting and reporting the data is not well established or 
understood.  Underreporting of investigations is likely, Lai 
said.  By contrast, data on convictions comes from the 
courts, which have been reporting to the Supreme People's 
Procuracy for a long time.  The data on convictions is 
likely to be more accurate, Lai predicted. 
 
Question B: National Plan of Action 
----------------------------------- 
 
5. (U) As reported reftel B, Vietnam has developed and 
issued a national action plan and has begun to implement it. 
Vietnamese press reported that on October 29, the Prime 
Minister signed a decree establishing the 11-member steering 
board for the action plan, to be overseen by Deputy Prime 
Minister Pham Gia Khiem.  The establishment of the steering 
board was a key step in implementing the action plan. 
 
Question C: Protections for exported laborers 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) Since 2001 there have been no reported cases from 
any source of Vietnamese laborers being trafficked by labor 
export companies or any other entity.  The GVN has greatly 
increased the number of workers sent abroad (2004 totals are 
approaching 60,000) and has also reworked the laws and 
regulations dealing with labor export.  As a result of 
negative publicity generated in a spate of cases in the 2001- 
2003 timeframe involving unscrupulous labor export companies 
who defrauded workers, failed to pay them owed wages, or 
abandoned them overseas after the bankruptcy of the host 
enterprise, the GVN has stationed labor attaches in the nine 
top labor export receiving countries to look after the 
welfare of the workers and assist in resolving workplace 
disputes.  The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social 
Affairs (MOLISA) has increased authority over the labor 
export companies and has exercised that authority in 
cooperation with MPS to impose penalties and sanctions 
against labor export companies who have violated laws or 
regulations or otherwise cheated workers.  This has included 
convictions and jail sentences for individuals using labor 
export companies to defraud workers. 
 
7. (SBU) Workers have also been able to use the law to 
negotiate settlements from labor export companies in cases 
where promised jobs fell through or workers were otherwise 
dissatisfied.  In one widely reported case in June, 2004, 
workers sent to Malaysia by state-owned labor export giant 
Interserco (under MOLISA) were able to use Decree 81 (the 
2003 major modification to the labor code dealing with labor 
export) and the intervention of the Department of Overseas 
Labor of MOLISA to force Interserco to compensate them for 
their costs after the promised labor contract was not 
honored on the Malaysian side.  While the main thrust of GVN 
efforts to clean up the labor export system has been to try 
to prevent fraud, these efforts have also had the effect of 
reducing the risk of labor trafficking.  Reftel C addresses 
the changes in the labor export system and the effects of 
those changes in more detail. 
OTHER TRAFFICKING ACHIEVEMENTS 
------------------------------ 
8. (SBU) In addition to the achievements on prosecution, the 
national plan of action and the implementation of the labor 
law, the GVN also signed on to the Coordinated Mekong 
Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) MOU on 
October 29.  China, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Laos and 
Vietnam all participated in a regional UN-hosted conference 
in Rangoon and signed the MOU.  Areas of practical 
cooperation identified in the MOU include: creation of a 
seamless network for repatriation and reintegration of 
victims between the six countries; networking of specialist 
police units from different countries to build cooperation 
in investigations and prosecutions; support for a regional 
training facility to build capacity for government officials 
to understand and combat trafficking; and improved 
extradition procedures.  The next step in the COMMIT process 
is to hold a senior officials meeting to agree on a 
"Subregional Plan of Action" to implement the MOU.  Vietnam 
has agreed to host that meeting in the first quarter of 
2005. 
 
MARINE