A woman in Vietnam was sentenced to eight years in jail on March 11 after she was found guilty of selling a 13-year-old girl to China as a bride.
A court in Nghe An province found 35-year-old Lang Thi Lien guilty of trafficking children, VN Express reported. In 2013, the woman went to China and married to a local man.
Three years later she visited her hometown – in Con Cuong district in Nghe An – and offered to take a neighbor’s 13-year-old daughter to work in China. She reportedly told the girl’s parents that she needed a babysitter and promised to pay them 80 million Dong (US$3,400) as well as a monthly salary for the teen.
In January 2017, the girl was taken across the border in Quang Ninh province and was sold to a Chinese man in Hebei for 210 million Dong (US$9,000.) Lien then told the girl’s family their daughter had married a Chinese man without giving any further other information to them.
The girl’s mother asked her friend to find the girl in China. The friend was able to track down the girl and was in the process of bringing her home when Lien caught them and threatened to harm them if the girl’s family did not pay her 380 million Dong (US$16,378.)
Soon after, the family of the girl as well as a family friend complained to authorities. Chinese police coordinated with NGO Blue Dragon and safely brought the girl and the family friend back to Vietnam in September 2017.
In November 2017, Lien was arrested by police in Vietnam when she returned for a visit.
According to the Ministry of Public Security in Vietnam, more than 3,000 cases of human trafficking involving about 7,000 victims were reported from 2010 to 2018. The victims were mostly women and children who were sold as labor, brides or just women to bear children.