HÀ NỘI – Adopting drastic measures to minimise the impact of prostitution on society was identified as the core task of the prostitution prevention programme for 2016-20.

The measures encompass mobilising more community organisations to get involved in the prostitution prevention programme, raising public awareness among people from all walks of life on the need for prostitution prevention, piloting the model to prevention prostitution in several areas and strengthening inspections nationwide.

This was announced by Nguyễn Xuân Lập, head of the Department for the Prevention of Social Evil under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, at this morning’s workshop, held by the National Committee on AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution Prevention and Control.

The workshop was organised to outline the core tasks of the prostitution prevention programme during 2016-20.

Participants in the workshop said prostitution was believed to have a range of negative effects on society, such as increasing the risk of spreading HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. It also leads to an increase in drug crimes and human trafficking.

Also at the meeting, it was reported that more than 11,200 prostitutes work in Việt Nam, based on the statistics of authorised agencies in 63 provinces and cities across the country.

However, participants at the meeting said the real number was much higher, noting it was hard for the authorised agencies to make accurate calculations as prostitutes had many tricks for hiding their activities.

Participants said prostitutes were now taking advantage of the boom in social networking sites such as Facebook and Zalo to promote their services and find clients.

Statistics revealed that 80 per cent of their clients were aged 18-25 years. Prostitutes were found mainly in parts of Hồng (Red) River Delta, the northern central region, the south-eastern region and Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta. — VNS