PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSRESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No.89

REPATRIATION AND REINTEGRATION OF TRAFFICKED VICTIMS:THE CASE OF VIETNAM
Le Thi Hoa*

I. Introduction
Trafficking in persons, especially women and children, has become a serious concern for many countries
in all parts of the world. Considered today as modern slavery, trafficking in persons has become a larger
phenomenon assuming different forms and motives. To successfully combat trafficking in persons requiresa system of comprehensive measures; policies against trafficking in persons should be considered frommultiple approaches, not only from criminal justice approaches, such as preventing, suppressing andpunishing trafficking crimes. But they must also be considered from victim-centered and rights-based
viewpoints, such as victim protection, repatriation and reintegration. Especially when most victims are
women and children, the latter becomes very important to save lives, protect rights and also to prevent
retrafficking.
In many countries, victims of trafficking are denied legal residence status and may be subject to deportation,even before they have the chance to participate in the criminal process or to request compensation. They often
have no identification or documents for travel and, therefore, face many problems, including being unable
to return to their home countries. If left to travel alone, they are especially vulnerable to being retrafficked.
Moreover, most victims of trafficking are in shock due to the physical, psychological or sexual violence, andtherefore they need medical treatment and psychological counselling. Victims are usually in need of housing,financial assistance, education and vocational training, as well as employment; without assistance fromconcerned authorities and communities, they are vulnerable to being retrafficked. Thus, the international
community has agreed to establish a common legal framework against trafficking in persons, namely theProtocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which
supplements the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Protocol focuses on womenand children, as they are the main and especially vulnerable victims, and requires States Parties to fulfill
obligations on repatriation and reintegration of trafficked victims.
To combat trafficking in persons and to protect victims, Vietnam has made many efforts against humantrafficking and has developed various countermeasures for prevention and suppression. In 2011, theVietnam National Assembly approved the Law on Prevention and Suppression against Human Trafficking.
Besides the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code, the Law provides a significant framework to fightagainst human trafficking in Vietnam. The Government has also issued various anti-trafficking programmes
and projects and has strengthened the responsibilities of concerned authorities to combat human trafficking.
In December 2011, Vietnam approved the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its
supplementing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women andChildren (hereinafter the “Protocol” against trafficking in persons). This event expresses determination,commitment and the efforts of Vietnam in the fight against trafficking in persons, as well as the protectionof victims. As a source state of trafficking in persons, the number of victims in Vietnam, and those who havereturned, have been increasing recently; however, Vietnam has been facing many challenges to supportand reintegrate the victims. This paper examines the current situation of human trafficking and how theVietnamese Government deals with the issues by focusing its policy on repatriation and reintegration of thevictims.

* Legal Expert, Ministry of Justice, Vietnam.

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II. The Current Situation of Trafficking in Persons in Vietnam
A. The Current Situation
In the context of the country’s deepening process of economic globalization, in recent years Vietnam has
become a source and also destination point of human trafficking, and it is also at risk of becoming a majortransit location for non-Vietnamese victims being trafficked to other countries in the region. The Ministryof Public Security reported that during 2006 and 2007, 537 trafficking cases were reported, with 1,465
women and children trafficked. In 2007, there were 357 cases with 670 perpetrators accused of trafficking
862 women and children.1 According to the Report assessing five years’ (2004-2009) implementation of theGovernment’s programme on combating trafficking in women and children, there were 1,586 cases with
2,888 offenders and 4,008 victims throughout the country. In comparison, within the last five years, thenumber of cases increased by 1,090 with 2,117 offenders and 2,935 victims. Remarkably, trafficking in newborn babies, fetuses and men is increasing. Also, a trafficking network has been established for the purposeof removal of organs for transport to China.2 However, given the lack of official data and estimates of theincidence of human trafficking, the numbers of victims are very limited and generally lack empirical merit; infact, the number of victims trafficked is much higher.
Trafficking in persons in Vietnam has changed remarkably from happening in only some provinces tospreading out to many other areas across the whole country; from the mode of domestically trivial acts totransnational organized activities. Women, girls and children have been trafficked domestically from therural provinces into the sex industry, or they have become domestic workers in big cities.3 At the crossborder level, Vietnam is a source country. Trafficking in women and children from Vietnam occurs in threemain lines: from the southern provinces to Cambodia, from the northern provinces to China, and the route to
Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea.4

B. Forms of Exploitation
Victim exploitation is a required component of human trafficking. Victim exploitation has multiple forms
such as prostitution, forced labour, and the removal of organs. In the case of Vietnam, women and children
are trafficked to Cambodia largely for sexual exploitation and forced labour,5 to China in the form of “mailorder brides” or are lured into prostitution. Children are being sold to China for adoption or for their organs.
Women are also being trafficked for sexual exploitation, domestic work, fake and servile marriages, forced
labour, or prostitution to some other countries in an apparently smaller scale such as Hong Kong, Korea,
Taiwan, ect.6 Additionally, Vietnam is reportedly the destination for children trafficked from Cambodia
for begging, labour and sexual exploitation. Some cases of trafficking in men were discovered in Laocai,
Quangninh, Caobang, and Langson provinces; they were trafficked for labour exploitation in the construction
and mining industries.
C. Means of Trafficking in Persons
According to Report No. 421/BCA-VPTT130/CP of the Ministry of Public Security,7 common tactics usedby traffickers are:i)

Abusing the situation of economic difficulty, as well as the low education of women and children,
traffickers trick them by promising that they will have high income jobs, and then the traffickers

1 Report of Ministry of Justice on Assessment [of the] Vietnamese Legal System on Combating Trafficking in Women andChildren – Recommendations, 2008.
2 Report No. 421/BCA-VPTT130/CP of the Ministry of Public Security on the assessment of five years (2004-2009) to
implement the Government’s Program on combating trafficking in women and children, dated 9 October 2009.
3 Report of 130/CP Steering Committee at the Meeting of Implementing National Plan of Actions phase II (2007-2010) Hanoi,
2007, p. 23.
4 Report of Ministry of Justice on Assessment [of the] Vietnamese Legal System on Combating Trafficking in Women andChildren – Recommendations, 2008, p. 5.
5 Annuska Derks, Combating Trafficking in South-East Asia: A Review of Policy and Program Responses (Working Paper No 2,
IOM, 2000), p. 18.
6 Action Aid International Vietnam, 2005, Synthesis Report: The Trafficking of Vietnamese Women and Children , at http://
www.humantrafficking.org/uploads/publications/AT_Synthesis_report_EN_080906.pdf, accessed 1 June 2012.
7 See 2.

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sell them to brothels, restaurants or other enterprises in Vietnam and other countries for sexual
exploitation or forced labour;ii)

Taking advantage of the gaps in adoption regulations, traffickers travel around the country tocollect new-born babies from provinces; then they collude with organizations masquerading as“humanitarian legal assistance centers” to set up files for abandoned babies. Then they traffic them
to foreign countries. In 2010, there were four cases prosecuted in Hoabinh, Ninhbinh, Namdinh andLamdong provinces. The typical cases: Vu Tien Manh colluded with his accomplices and trafficked
174 babies for international adoption from 1996 to 1998; or the case of Social Sponsor Center of
Lynhan District, Namdinh Province, where traffickers collected 253 abandoned babies and trafficked
them for international adoption.8iii) To defraud by promising victims a good marriage. This method is often used by traffickers in thesouth of Vietnam. In many cases, foreigners collude with Vietnamese procurators by establishingtransnational organized groups of trafficking hidden in the form of “marriage procurement centers”.
In September 2006, a group of traffickers in Bindinh Province had a pretended wedding in order toprocure 266 Vietnamese girls for 41 Koreans. Just in Ho Chi Minh City, there were 38 cases of illegal
marriage discovered and 1,772 women chosen by Taiwanese and Korean men9;iv) Taking advantage of information technology, the traffickers have cheated students by promisingthem jobs or study abroad programmes but then traffic them abroad (about 7.3% of all victims weretrafficked this way) or establish transnational sexual tourism networks;v)

Taking advantage of deserted mountain areas, an organized crime group of the Vietnamese andChinese traffickers broke suddenly into a house, killed the parents, kidnapped children and trafficked
them to China. Just in Hagiang Province, from 2007 to 2010 there were 49 cases discovered with 7
people killed, 3 people injured and 66 children kidnapped and trafficked.

D. The Causes of Trafficking in Persons
The reasons that human trafficking is an increasing phenomenon in Vietnam are: 1) the root cause of
trafficking in persons is the spread of operations of international human trafficking networks and the strong
development of the sex industry in the region and in the world; 2) in the country, the negative aspects ofthe market economy have been creating advantages to spread and develop prostitution as an illegal businesssector, which results in trafficking in women and children for the purpose of prostitution; 3) illiteracy,
economic difficulties, lack of education and information, and the shortage of awareness and knowledge arealso causes leading many women and children to become victims of trafficking; 4) the weak management ofauthorized agencies in certain areas such as border security, immigration, marriage, and child adoption has
also created good conditions for traffickers; 5) the lack and limitation of laws and regulations in certain areas
such as marriage, labour, and exportation has created advantages which traffickers exploit to transfer many
women abroad illegally.
III. Repatriation and Reintegration of Victims of Trafficking
under Vietnamese Laws
Returning to their home countries is often a complicated process for victims of trafficking, especiallytrafficked women and children, in which they face psychological, health, economic and legal troubles andproblems in the reintegrating process. The Training Manual for Combating Trafficking in Women andChildren, developed as part of the United Nations inter-agency project on trafficking in women and children
in the sub-Mekong region, undertaken in cooperation with International Organization for Migration (IOM),
confirmed the importance of repatriation as going beyond returning the trafficked person home safely andvoluntarily.10 In particular, actions undertaken before the victims return to their homes are significant in
the prevention of trafficking. Besides the economic and political conditions of the country to which victims
return, social values and patterns of thinking, which victims are driven into, are contributing factors for
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.

10 Training Manual for Combating Trafficking in Women and Children, at www.un.or.th/traffickingProject/trafficking_manual.

pdf, accessed 5 June 2012.

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second- and third-time trafficking. The “pre-departure” activities are extremely important since the victims
that are returning have the potential to be the strongest anti-trafficking advocates in the communities towhich they return.11
Further, most victims of trafficking, especially women and children, need assistance to reintegrate into
the­ir communities and recover from the trauma they experienced. Providing services such as shelter,
financial support, counselling, and vocational training not only facilitates their reintegration but also prevents
them from being retrafficked or falling into the sex industry or exploitation. Since many rescued trafficked
women and children suffer from sexually transmitted diseases, regulations on free, quality medical services
and rehabitation to these trafficked victims is also essential to ease the reintegration process. Child victimsof trafficking are particularly vulnerable, and thus it is nescessary for special programmes and services toprovide proper care and rehabitation.
From an international perspective, the community has made strong commitments to protect victims
through various legal instruments and toolkits, such as the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; the toolkit of the Global Programme Against
Trafficking in Human Beings (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — UNODC); the 2002 UNOHCHR
Guidelines; the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles; and the International Labor Organization(ILO) 182. 12 Those documents provide the prinicipal criteria to countries to protect, repatriate andreintegrate trafficked victims.

A. Vietnam’s Current Situation of Repatriation and Reintegration of Victims
Recently, the number of victims of trafficking, especially women and children, returning to Vietnam has
been increasing. During 2005 and 2006, over 1,200 women and children had either self-returned or had
been deported from a foreign country back to Vietnam. As the initial result of data analysis surveyed on
the situation of repatriation of trafficked victims in several provinces, 75% of the victims self-returned (ranaway from detention, harbours), 20% were officially deported and 5% were released by traffickers after they
were accused. In fact, the number of victims who returned to Vietnam is very small — only 8% of womenand children trafficked — and most victim receipt cases were implemented unofficially; therefore, themanagement and support of the victims has faced many difficulties and challenges.13
According to a report of the Ministry of Justice, the initial result of the survey conducted in several
provinces predicted that most trafficked women and children came from rural areas, hinterlands, anddistant regions or mountain villages; they were not educated (70% were illiterate).14 Most of them sufferedfrom economic difficulties, were homeless, landless, and jobless, and suffered from poverty and famine.
Most women and girls who had worked in the sex industry usually do not share their real experiences orsituations with their families and communities because they feel ashamed. Many of them came back with
an illness caused by the conditions in which they were exploited, by alcohol or drug abuse, or by physical orsexual abuse. Most of them have emotional or psychological problems, spinal injuries, respiratory problems,
tuberculosis, malnutrition, mental problems, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, injuries
from assault and complications from abortion.15 Many of them could not get identification cards issued;
therefore, they could not re-register for permanent residence, which causes many negative consequencesin their lives.16 At the same time, the community often discriminates against them, considers them to be
spoiled and unfit for marriage and as having a corrupting influence on other young people.17 Meanwhile,
the victims do not know where and which authorities are responsible to assist them, and local authorities
have not yet paid much attention to them or provided support and assistance for their integration. Moreover,even the procedure and mechanism for receipt and reintegration of victims still lacks specific and concrete
guidelines and suffers from financial limitations, the weakness of concerned authorities, poor facilities, etc.
11 Ibid.

12 ILO, http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C182, accessed June 5, 2012.

13 Report of the Ministry of Justice on Assessment [of the] Vietnamese Legal System on Combating Trafficking in Women andChildren – Recommendations, 2008.

14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.

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B. Vietnam’s Legal Framework on Repatriation and Reintegration of Victims
Before the Law on Prevention and Suppression Against Trafficking in Persons was enacted, theimportant legal document that provided the framework for repatriation and integration of victims was
the Decision on the National Plan of Action Against Crime of Trafficking in Children and Women during
the period of 2004-2010 approved by the Prime Minister in July 2004; the Decision No 17/2007/QD-TTg(January 2007) on promultigation of the Regulation on Receipt and Support to Community Reintegration of
the Trafficked Women and Children Returned Home from Overseas, and the Inter-Ministries Circular No.
116/2007/TTLB/BTC-BLDTBXH between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids andSocial Affairs (MoLISA) guiding the financial spending on identification and receipt of trafficked women andchildren. These documents created concrete obligations of the concerned Ministries, relevant agencies andorganizations to receive and support community reintegration of the trafficked women and children.
Since 2012, the repatriation and integration of trafficked victims are provided for in the Law Against
Trafficking in Persons, as follows:i) Victim Receipt Procedures:a) Receipt of Domestically Trafficked Victims18
Victims or their lawful representatives may go to commune-level People’s Committees, or other local
agencies or organizations, to report trafficking cases. Agencies or organizations that receive the report shallhave the responsibility to transfer the victims to commune-level People’s Committees in the areas where
the head offices of the agencies or organizations are located. The commune-level People’s Committees shallnotify the Division of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of the report. In case of necessity, the communelevel People’s Committees that have received the victims shall meet the essential needs of victims. Within
three days of the date they receive the notification from the commune-level People’s Committees, theDivision of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall receive and support victims, and cooperate with
Public Security Agencies at corresponding levels in identifying preliminary information of the victims
in case the victims are not in possession of one of the papers or documents stipulated in the Law. After
receiving the victims, the Division of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall provide travelling expenses
to the victims in case they return to their place of residence by themselves; inform their relatives so thatthe relatives come to receive the victims, or designate persons to take the victims to the areas where thevictims’ relatives reside in case the victims are children; conduct procedures to transfer the victims to social
welfare institutions or victim support institutions in case the victims are in need of health or psychologicalcare, and express their will to remain in social welfare institutions or victim-support institutions. If thevictims do not possess any papers or documents that prove them to be victims, the Division of Labor,
War Invalids and Social Affairs shall request Public Security Agencies at corresponding levels to conduct
verification.
b) Receipt of Rescued Victims19
Public Security Agencies, Border Military or Marine Police that have rescued victims have theresponsibility to meet the essential needs of the victims and transfer them to the Division of Labor, War
Invalids and Social Affairs near the areas where the victims have been rescued. After receiving the victims,
the Division of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall provide supports as mentioned above. In casethe victims have not been confirmed as victims by the rescuing agencies, the Division shall cooperate with
the Public Security Agencies at corresponding levels to identify the preliminary information of the victims
prior to the provision of travelling expenses to the victims or the transfer of the victims to social welfare
institutions or victim support institutions.
c) Receipt of Victims Who Return from Abroad 20
Foreign-based Vietnamese Representative Missions shall receive and review the documents of thevictims and cooperate with the Ministry of Public Security in verifying the identity record of the victims,
issuing necessary documents and conducting procedures to take them back to Vietnam. The competentagencies of the Ministry of Public Security or the Ministry of National Defence shall receive the victims,
18 Article 24 of the Law on Prevention and Suppression against Trafficking in Persons.
19 Ibid. at Article 25.
20 Ibid. at Article 26.

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provide fares and food expenses during their travelling and guide them as they apply for supportive
measures stipulated in the Law if the victims express their desire to return to their place of residence on
their own. If they do not have any place of residence or they express their desire to remain in social welfare
institutions or victim support institutions, the competent agencies shall transfer them to such institutions.

ii) The assistance policy for reintegration of victims
Victims who are Vietnamese citizens or stateless persons permanently residing in Vietnam are entitledto supportive measures, including: essential needs and travelling expenses, medical support, psychologicalsupport; legal aid; educational training, vocational training; loans or short-term allowances for overcoming
difficulty. Foreign-national victims trafficked in Vietnam are supported for essential needs and travelling
expenses, medical support, psychological support, and legal aid. Minors who accompany victims are also
provided support for integration.
iii) Agencies and Organizations Providing Support for Victims:
According to the Law Against Trafficking in Persons21:-

Commune-level People’s Committees that have received victims, or Public Security Agencies,
Border Military or Marine Police that have rescued victims shall provide support to the victims tomeet their essential needs.
The Division on Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall provide travelling expenses to victims incase they desire to return to their places of residence by themselves.
Social welfare institutions, victim support institutions shall provide support to meet the essential
needs of victims, and provide psychological support and medical support to victims.
State-run legal aid centers and other organizations that provide legal aid services shall provide legal
aid to victims.
The Department for Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall provide short-term allowances tohelp victims overcome their difficulties; cooperate with Health Departments and Departments for
Education and Training in providing health, educational training and vocational training support tovictims.

Publicly run social welfare institutions shall support victims by receiving them and providing them withshelter; providing victims with support for their essential needs, health care and psychological support
according to their sex and age, according to their will, and on the basis of the institutions’ resources andability; providing education on living skills and vocational guidance to victims; evaluating victims’ possibilityof integration into communities, and providing information on supportive policies, measures and services
for victims in communities; providing necessary information to functional agencies for the prevention andsuppression of all acts of human trafficking; cooperating with relevant agencies to take victims to theirplaces of residence. The Law also provides that victim support institutions, which are established by
Vietnamese individuals or organizations in conformity with their establishment permits, may take part in theperformance of the above-mentioned duties to support victims.

C. The Effort of Vietnam on International and Regional Cooperation
Recently, the Vietnamse government has been paying more attention to the problem of trafficking
in women and children and has made efforts to prevent and reduce it, including participating in related
international instruments such as CEDAW (ratified 17 February 1982), the Convention on the Rights of theChild (ratified 28 February 1990), Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution
and Child Pornography and Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict(ratified 20 December 2001), the ILO Convention No.182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action
for the Elimination of the Worst forms of Child Labor (ratified 19 December 2000) and the Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime (ratified on 8 June 2012). Furthermore, Vietnam has entered intobilateral agreements with China, Australia, Cambodia, and Thailand concerning cooperation in combating
certain crimes, including illegal immigration and trafficking in women and children. Those documents createa legal basis for Vietnam to cooperate with other states and organizations to prevent trafficking in womenand children as well as to provide support and assistance for trafficked victims.
21 Ibid. at Article 39.

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The Ministry of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has been assigned by the Government to
act as the national central authority of Vietnam to participate in the two projects of the Mekong sub-region
on prevention of trafficking in women and children sponsored by ILO/PEC and UNDP. These projects are
implemented with the cooperation of the Vietnam Women’s Union, the Ministry of Public Security, theBorder Military and other concerned agencies, and their purposes are to strengthen dialogue, coordinationof actions and mutual assistance among national and regional agencies in the prevention and suppressionof trafficking in women and children; to support, develop and implement basic initiatives concerning
detection, protection and rehabitation of trafficked women and children; and to promote national andregional cooperation in areas of law, policy and law enforcement in prevention and suppression of trafficking
in women and children.22 The project sponsored by ILO’s purpose is to contribute to eliminating labour
exploitation of women and children in the Mekong sub-region, including all of Vietnam; the immediateobjective is to reduce retrafficking in women and children for labour exploitation by developing,
implementing and monitoring overall national and sub-regional programmes, projects and plans. In orderto achieve the objectives, three intervention measures are taken, namely: capacity-building, awarenessenhancement and direct activities such as improving knowledge and skills, seting up groups for prevention
and suppression of trafficking in women and children in residential quarters in cities, supporting vocational
training of women and children in need and jobs recommendation, working out sustainable financial savings
programmes, etc.23 Those projects and models of reintegration are implemented in a variety of provinces,such as Thanhhoa, Langson, Bacgiang, Quangninh, Cantho, and Ho Chi Minh City, and have achieved
encouraging results.24

D. Assessment on Repatriation and Reintegration of Victims in Vietnam
Trafficking in women and children, though it emerged in Vietnam more than a decade ago, has beenafforded significant attention and deep concern by the Government and community because of its
complicated and multiple characteristics, as well as its serious consequences on victims, families andsociety. Many efforts have been made, such as amending and improving the legal framework to prosecuteand judge traffickers of women and children, as well as implementing measures to ensure and protect
the victims. However, there are still many issues such as the rapidly increasing number of victims, theineffectiveness of the legal system at preventing human trafficking crimes and protecting the victims, weaklegal enforcement, etc.
In fact, the number of trafficked women and children of Vietnam has been increasing recently in linewith the number of criminal trafficking cases investigated; the number of trafficked women and children
who return to Vietnam has been increasing. As mentioned above, most trafficked women and children havesuffered from economic difficulties and are homeless, landless, jobless, and poverty and famine stricken; andbecause they had worked in the sex industry, they feel ashamed to share their real experiences with theirfamilies and communities. Many of them return with illnesses caused by the conditions in which they were
exploited, by alcohol or drug abuse, or by physical or sexual abuse, and have emotional or psychologicalproblems, spinal injuries, respiratory problems, tuberculosis, malnutrition, mental problems, sexuallytransmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, injuries from assault and complications from abortion. However,when they return, the community does not sympathize with their experiences but rather discriminates
against them and treats them as criminals. Local authorities have not yet paid attention to them and have
not yet provided support and assistance for their reintegration. This makes the victims more vulnerable andincreases their risks of being retrafficked.
From a legislative perspective, it can be said that, basically, the legal framework in Vietnam, upon receipt
and reintegration for trafficked women and children, meets the requirements of the Trafficking in Persons
Protocol. The Government of Vietnam has been focused on completing the legal framework as the mostimportant step to establishing a system and mechanism on receipt and integration of trafficked victims byenacting the Law on Prevention and Suppression Against Trafficking in Persons. The Government has
22 Report of the Ministry of Justice on Assessment [of the] Legal System in Vietnam in Comparison with the UN Protocol on

Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants, supplementing the UN Palermo Convention, 2004, p. 51.

23 Ibid, p. 52.
24 Ibid.

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been also making great efforts towards international cooperation by ratifying a number of international
conventions related to women’s and children’s rights in general, particularly related to repatriation andreintegration, and cooperating with international organizations such as the UNODC, IMO, and the Asia
Foundation to implement various projects related to the issues.
Vietnamese law provides measures on repatriation and reintegration of trafficked victims; however, thereal concern is whether and how such measures are taken into account while dealing with the issues inpractice or whether these measures are mere “paper tigers.” And the practice, as mentioned above, has
proved that such regulations are good, but sadly, the authorities have been implementing them ineffectively.
More particularly, although the procedures of identifying, receiving and supporting trafficked womenand children are provided in the Law on Prevention and Suppression Against Trafficking in Persons asmentioned above, Vietnam have not yet had specific, comprehensive guidelines, and the implementation ofthese measures is too slow and inefficient.
Moreover, there is still a lack of cooperation between governmental authorities because the repatriation,
receipt and reintegration of trafficked victims needs to be implemented by the cooperation of multiple
sectors; as such, the labour, invalid and social affairs sector should take main responsibility in dealing with
the issues, and the receipt of victims should be implemented by the Border Army while the Public Security
offices are responsible for identifying the victims. There also remains a lack of synchronous coordination
among agencies from the central to grassroots levels in receiving and the reintegration of trafficked
victims. A leading agency responsible for setting up a collaborative mechanism does not exist. Moreover,the multiple staffs working in this area in the relevant agencies at all levels have not been trained in legal
knowledge and working skills.
On the other hand, financial and job opportunities in Vietnam are still limited, and these factors obstruct
the effective repatriation and reintegration of victims. There are many measures to assist victims of
trafficking, which, however, have not fully materialized. The Government has failed to effectively assist
victims in generating income due to the lack of financial support or available credit. Moreover, caused bylimited budgets, very few shelters are built; thus, there are not enough places for them to live prior toreintegrating into their respective communities.

IV. Conclusion and Recommendations
Vietnam has been constructing a legal framework for the protection of human rights in general, andfor women’s and children’s rights in particular. In the context of trafficking in women and children, thiscrime is increasing and is becoming more complicated. Therefore, it is very nescessary to have concreteand comprehensive guidelines established by law. Moreover, the implementation of the law needs to bestrengthened in order to repatriate and reintegrate trafficked victims, which has been limited and inefficient.
In order to improve the effectiveness of the fight against trafficking, as well as protection of the victims of
trafficking, this paper recommends the following actions.
Firstly, the Law Against Trafficking in Persons provides a framework for repatriation and reintegrationof victims. However, the provisions of the law mentioned above need to be guided concretely andcomprehensively, especially relating to procedures, mechanisms, responisiblities of agencies, andcoordination between agencies in receiving and reintegraing victims of trafficking. The return andreintegration into communities is usually a complicated and difficult process for the victims in which they
are faced with many problems, such as the lack of travel or identity documents and discrimination from thecommunity. Therefore, they need immediate assistance, such as legal procedures, identification, housing,
employment, counselling, and vocational training, in all aspects of their lives from concerned authorities.
Without concrete and appropriate guidelines, it is hard to support victims sufficiently. Therefore, guideline
documents should provide detailed scopes; measures to reintegrate victims into communities; support andassistance measures for victims; financial support and loans; job training; reissued identification, as well as
permanent residence certificates and birth certificates for the victims’ children; and medical, educational
and legal support. Children especially, because of their vulnerability and inability to take care of themselves,require special assistance, and thus different measures should be provided.
Secondly, although the Vietnamese Government has ratified the Convention against Transnational

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Organized Crime and its Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons, that is only the first step. In order to fully
meet the requirements under such international legal instruments, there is still much work to be done, suchas improving laws and regulations, strengthening the effectiveness of the implementation of laws as well as
strengthening coorperation with party members.
Thirdly, dealing with trafficked women and children outside of Vietnamese borders requires regional andinternational cooperation. Therefore, it is recommended that Vietnam should continue its efforts to develop
bilateral agreements with countries of destination in the Mekong region such as China, Thailand, Cambodia,
or other destinations, including Malaysia, Taiwan, and Korea. Also, Vietnam should follow up with thecriteria set out by international organizations as mentioned above. These agreements can be used to develop
a system for financing the return of victims and providing contributions towards their reintegration. Vietnam
also needs to provide a mechanism to protect and repatriate foreign trafficked victims in cases where
Vietnam is used as a transfer location or destination.
Fourthly, improving and strengthening coordination between concerned agencies is very necessary inorder to provide effective support to, and the reintegration of, victims.
Finally, Vietnam should also establish mechanisms and policies to encourage NGOs’ participation in thereintegration of trafficked women and children. Therefore, Vietnam should design model rehabilitation andcommunity-reintegration centers and open professional training courses for concerned persons who work at
such centers in order to improve their knowledge and skills to respond to the needs of victims of trafficking.

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