Phạm Long Biên speaks about human trafficking prevention and control at a conference in Hà Nội. — Photo courtesy of the IOM

Senior Colonel Phạm Long Biên, head of the Counter-Trafficking Division at the Department of Drug Control and Crime Prevention under the Việt Nam Border Guard High Command, speaks to Việt Nam News reporter Thu Trang about human trafficking prevention and control.

How sophisticated are the tricks of human traffickers?

Human trafficking has recently changed a lot in terms of victims’ gender, age, and the purpose of trafficking. While in the past, human trafficking was mainly for forced labour or sexual exploitation, recently traffickers have focused largely on forced online fraud from countries in the Mekong sub-region.

The traffickers’ methods are very diverse and their tricks are very sophisticated. They mainly operate on social media and rarely have direct contact with victims, making it difficult for investigating agencies to collect and consolidate evidence.

What recent measures have the Government and border guards taken to prevent human trafficking?

In 2021, the Government issued a human trafficking prevention and control programme for the period 2021-25. It sets out many comprehensive and feasible policies.

Among these, in my opinion, there are four particularly important policies. They are the policy of preventing human trafficking crimes, the policy of investigating and prosecuting crimes, the policy of reviewing, identifying and protecting victims and vulnerable groups, taking victims as the centre, and the policy of international cooperation.

Lately, the Government has directed ministries, especially the Ministry of Public Security, to draft and submit to the National Assembly the amended Law on Prevention of Human Trafficking, addressing many prior shortcomings.

The amended law has many new policies, of which I’m most satisfied with the policy on defining human trafficking. It will resolve many problems for the development of future regulations.

In addition to identifying victims, the revised law also introduces a new group, which is people showing signs of being trafficked. This definition is very humane and make a significant contribution to the fight against human trafficking.

As for the border guards, it is the agency assigned by the Ministry of National Defence and the Government to prevent human trafficking at our borders, border gates and at sea.

Following the directive from the Government and the Ministry of National Defence, the Border Guard Command developed a programme to prevent and combat human trafficking for the period 2021-25 with a vision towards 2030.

The Border Guard Command is the main agency in this work. We have been very successful in guiding and urging other agencies to participate in every stage of prevention and combat, from identifying victims to creating a comprehensive overall strength to prevent and combat human trafficking.

During this period, the Border Guard Command identified two main objectives and eight comprehensive groups of solutions in both theory and practice. We have defined high-risk groups and groups with the potential to commit crimes, focusing on them to make prevention efforts more effective.

We work with local authorities as well as network managers, because many traffickers operate in cyberspace and we have to form strong cooperative networks to catch them.

As for international cooperation, in addition to working with neighbouring countries such as China, Laos and Cambodia, the border guards also cooperate with other Mekong sub-region countries as well as the UK, Australia and the US, and international organisations such as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Blue Dragon to help prevent human trafficking in Việt Nam.

Thanks to coordinated measures, the effectiveness of prevention work has significantly increased over the past few years, doubling that of the 2015-2020 period.

Next year we will officially announce conclusive data for the five-year period from 2021-2025. But in the first six months of this year alone, the border guards successfully carried out 12 special investigations, arrested 25 human traffickers and rescued 32 victims.

What are the recommendations from authorities to help residents avoid being trafficked?

As the agency directly responsible for human trafficking prevention, we advise people to always remember the message: “Think first, step later”.

If you want to migrate, especially for the purpose of labour, you must carefully research whether the intermediary agency is reputable and legal or not.

The second thing is to always remember that there is no easy job with a high salary. An easy job with a high salary is just a trap set by traffickers, and if potential victims do not realise the value of labour, they will certainly fall into the trap of human traffickers. — VNS