Friday, January 21, 2011

Jail for Tay Ninh human traffickers

Tay Ninh Province People's Court has sentenced four offenders to a total of 21 years in prison for trafficking nine Vietnamese women to work as prostitutes in Singapore.

The ring's head, Vo Thi Hiep, 46, received eight years. She admitted to meeting a Vietnamese women who immigrated to Singapore known as "pimp Ngan" in the middle of 2009.

Hiep and "pimp Ngan" then planned to cheat and take Vietnamese women to Singapore and sell them for Ngan's brothel. For each woman sold, Hiep would be paid VND1 million (US$50).

Ngan then hired Ly Thanh Mong, 25, to receive the women that Hiep sold and take care of necessary documents and flights for these women to come to Singapore. Ngan paid Mong VND2 million ($100) per month.

In September 2009, Hiep promised twins Tran Thi Kim Ngoc and Tran Thi Kim Ngan, 19, that she had found a well-paying job for them at a restaurant in Singapore. Ngoc and Ngan, from Tay Ninh Province, agreed to go and were then sold to pimp Ngan's brothel.

They were later sent back to Viet Nam by Hiep and were required to find more women to send to Singapore.

Later in the month, Ngoc introduced another woman to Hiep. Unlike the others, she did not agree to work as a prostitute and told her family to buy her back for VND18 million ($900). She then denounced Hiep's trafficking ring to local police.

On February 4, police seized Mong and Ngan at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City while they were trying to fly nine women to Singapore.

At the court Mong, Ngoc and Ngan were sentenced to six, four and three years in prison, respectively.

According to the General Department for Anti-crime Police, 140 cases of human trafficking were detected between August and October this year. The majority of the 1,300 victims were women, the department said.

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