Four children accuse couple of brutal abuse

A senior official at a shelter in the southern province of Dong Nai has denied accusations from four children who claim they were seriously abused.

The kids were found wandering the streets of Ho Chi Minh City earlier this week.

“I was really shocked when they said my husband and I had seriously assaulted them,” Le Thi Thanh Lan, deputy director of the shelter, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper on Wednesday (November 10).

“We consider them our own children and we were in the process of adopting [one of them]. We always bring them with us on vacations or when we go out to eat,” she said. “I have never abused them with clubs and chains as they claim. I want the police to investigate [these accusations].”

Lan’s response came after four children, aged four to 13, escaped from the shelter and took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City where local residents brought them to the police.

They were later sent to the HCMC Social Assistance Center where the children accused the facility’s staff of beatings and torture.

“When I soiled my pants, I was dunked in a water tank by Lan. She also tied me to a toilet,” four-year-old Diep Hieu Trung said.

Six-year-old Diep Tuan Khoa said he fled from the Dong Nai shelter because Lan and her husband, Thanh, beat him and other children.

Nguyen Van Be Hai, 13, is the eldest among the four children. He claimed the couple’s abuse prompted their daring escape. They fled the facility on Sunday night (November 7) while Lan and her husband were asleep.

“Five of us climbed the fence to flee,” Hai said. “[Five-year-old Le Gia] Huy slipped and fell but he continued running. One of us dropped behind and got caught. We kept on running. Some people gave us money and took us to HCMC by bus. In HCMC, passersby saw and took us to the police.”

The child who fell behind, 14- year-old Nguyen Van Quyet, said Hai convinced the others to escape from the shelter. However, he didn’t confirm they had been tortured by the shelter staff.

“Thanh didn’t [abuse] us. Lan has verbally abused and beat us when we failed to clean the house,” he said.

Kids say the darnedest things

On November 10, the Youth Union branch in Dong Nai Province issued a decision to suspend Lan for one month pending an investigation into the children’s claims.

Le Thi My Phuong, director of the Dong Nai Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said the shelter has played an important role in protecting and taking care of the orphans and abandoned children.

However, she said the organization planned to conduct a full investigation of the children’ claims.

Bui Xuan Thong, Secretary of the local Youth Union, said he could not comment yet on whether or not the shelter staff abused the children because authorities concerned have not yet interviewed them.

Still, Thong remained suspicious about the claims.

One of the children who made the daring escape claimed that his arm had been broken by the shelter’s abusive overseers.

But Thong said he doubted that a small child with a broken arm could have managed to scale the shelter’s two-meter fence.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Bao Tuong of the HCMC Children Hospital No. 1 said the hospital admitted Khoa and Huy on Monday with multiple injuries. He said the doctors have been unable to determine whether or not those injuries were caused by physical abuse.

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Four children accuse couple of brutal abuse

A senior official at a shelter in the southern province of Dong Nai has denied accusations from four children who claim they were seriously abused.

The kids were found wandering the streets of Ho Chi Minh City earlier this week.

“I was really shocked when they said my husband and I had seriously assaulted them,” Le Thi Thanh Lan, deputy director of the shelter, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper on Wednesday (November 10).

“We consider them our own children and we were in the process of adopting [one of them]. We always bring them with us on vacations or when we go out to eat,” she said. “I have never abused them with clubs and chains as they claim. I want the police to investigate [these accusations].”

Lan’s response came after four children, aged four to 13, escaped from the shelter and took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City where local residents brought them to the police.

They were later sent to the HCMC Social Assistance Center where the children accused the facility’s staff of beatings and torture.

“When I soiled my pants, I was dunked in a water tank by Lan. She also tied me to a toilet,” four-year-old Diep Hieu Trung said.

Six-year-old Diep Tuan Khoa said he fled from the Dong Nai shelter because Lan and her husband, Thanh, beat him and other children.

Nguyen Van Be Hai, 13, is the eldest among the four children. He claimed the couple’s abuse prompted their daring escape. They fled the facility on Sunday night (November 7) while Lan and her husband were asleep.

“Five of us climbed the fence to flee,” Hai said. “[Five-year-old Le Gia] Huy slipped and fell but he continued running. One of us dropped behind and got caught. We kept on running. Some people gave us money and took us to HCMC by bus. In HCMC, passersby saw and took us to the police.”

The child who fell behind, 14- year-old Nguyen Van Quyet, said Hai convinced the others to escape from the shelter. However, he didn’t confirm they had been tortured by the shelter staff.

“Thanh didn’t [abuse] us. Lan has verbally abused and beat us when we failed to clean the house,” he said.

Kids say the darnedest things

On November 10, the Youth Union branch in Dong Nai Province issued a decision to suspend Lan for one month pending an investigation into the children’s claims.

Le Thi My Phuong, director of the Dong Nai Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said the shelter has played an important role in protecting and taking care of the orphans and abandoned children.

However, she said the organization planned to conduct a full investigation of the children’ claims.

Bui Xuan Thong, Secretary of the local Youth Union, said he could not comment yet on whether or not the shelter staff abused the children because authorities concerned have not yet interviewed them.

Still, Thong remained suspicious about the claims.

One of the children who made the daring escape claimed that his arm had been broken by the shelter’s abusive overseers.

But Thong said he doubted that a small child with a broken arm could have managed to scale the shelter’s two-meter fence.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Bao Tuong of the HCMC Children Hospital No. 1 said the hospital admitted Khoa and Huy on Monday with multiple injuries. He said the doctors have been unable to determine whether or not those injuries were caused by physical abuse.

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UN raises migrant abuse concerns

GENEVA — The Global Migration Group (GMG) said it was deeply concerned about the welfare of international migrants, who are routinely subjected to human rights abuses.

The statement came after a meeting at the United Nations Office in Geneva on Thursday.

The GMG estimates there are tens of millions of migrants worldwide. It said there were more likely to face discrimination, exclusion, exploitation and abuse. It said they often faced prolonged detention or ill-treatment, and in some cases, enslavement, rape or even murder.

They are more likely to be targeted by xenophobes and racists, victimised by unscrupulous employers and sexual predators, and can easily fall prey to criminal traffickers and smugglers, the GMG said.

Children, especially those that are unaccompanied and separated, are particularly at risk, the GMG said. Furthermore, children are often banned from classrooms or denied their fundamental rights, even if their parents work and contribute to the economies of the host countries.

Migrants in an irregular situation are often denied even the most basic labour protection, personal security, and healthcare. Female migrants in these situations face greater risk of sexual exploitation, HIV transmission, gender based violence and discrimination.

The GMG called upon states to review the situation of migrants within their territories and to work towards ensuring that their laws and regulations conformed with international human rights standards. — VNS

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Child abuse more common than data suggests

Huynh Thanh Giang receives a sentence of 23 years in prison for abusing a 14-year-old boy. Child abuse is thought to be more common in Viet Nam than official figures indicate. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hai

HA NOI — The number of cases of child abuse has increased this year and the more worrying problem is that the number in reality is much higher because many families do not report cases of abuse to the police, said Dam Huu Dac, standing deputy minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

A total of 704 children were abused in the first six months of this year, an increase of three times compared with the same period three years ago, Dac said.

As many as 13.5 per cent of abused children were under six years old, and 37.2 per cent of them between six and 13 years old.

Po Me Nu, a 14-year-old ethnic minority student from the northern province of Dien Bien, said many girls in her neighbourhood were forced to marry at the age of just 13 or 14.

"Moreover, they are often beaten by their husbands, and threatened not to tell anyone," she said.

Children in Nu's village have to work hard in the fields and many have to wear tattered clothes to school and study on empty stomachs because their families are too poor.

"I hope that parents in my village allow us time to study and do not force us to get married and work too hard," Nu said.

Tran Ha Dung, another young girl from the southern province of Ca Mau said many children in her area did not attend school because they were busy selling lottery tickets on the streets.

"They are also employed by restaurant owners and often beaten if they do not do their jobs well," she said.

Speaking about the reasons for the problem, director of the Department of Child Care and Protection Nguyen Hai Huu said the laws on child protection were being continuously revised and improved to meet today's demands and conform with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child which Viet Nam signed in 1990. However, specific punishment for child abuse was not strict enough.

"We do not have the manpower to check all private manufacturing enterprises, restaurants and internet and karaoke shops where children are often employed," Huu said.

Education levels, especially in rural and remote areas, are low so they do not understand that by beating children, they are violating the law. And many children do not go to school because of their poor families thus they themselves do not know about their rights, he added.

To improve the situation, Dac said the ministry was working on four projects directed at 107 communes nationwide where abuse is common. "In the middle of this October, we will submit the revised Law on Human Trafficking to the National Assembly Standing Committee for approval," Dac said.

Huu added that the department published leaflets on child abuse prevention in minority languages which had been distributed in mountainous and remote areas.

"Loudspeakers are installed in those areas to spread information about children's rights," Huu said.

The department also organised talks about the problem, and encouraged victims of child abuse to attend and talk about their experiences.

"We are working with the Ministry of Education and Training to improve awareness on children's rights and get prevention of child abuse onto the syllabus," Huu said.

Victims of child abuse could call the department's hotline 18001567, which is available 24/7, he added.

"The most important thing is for relevant departments and bodies to join hands to reduce poverty, which is the main reason of child abuse," Huu said. — VNS

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