Jackie Bong-Wright
Trong baøi vieát nguyeân taùc baèng Anh ngöõ beân caïnh, Jackie Bong-Wright - moät teân tuoåi tranh ñaáu quen thuoäc cuûa nöõ giôùi VN, hieän nguï taïi Hoa Thònh Ñoán, ñaõ ñöa ra moå xeû vaán ñeà phuï nöõ VN bò baùn ñaáu giaù treân e-Bay, vôùi caùc yù kieán chính nhö sau:
- Söï kieän ba ngöôøi con gaùi VN ñöôïc ñöa leân baùn ñaáu giaù treân e-Bay hoái ñaàu thaùng 3-04, vôùi
giaù sô khôûi $US5400, chæ chuyeån haøng töø VN ñeán Ñaøi Loan maø thoâi, vaø chæ ñaáu giaù trong 10
ngaøy, ñaõ laøm phaån noä ngöôøi Vieät treân toaøn theá giôùi, ñaëc bieät phaûn öùng maïnh töø UÙc vaø
Myõ. Caùc thö phaûn khaùng ñaõ ñöôïc göûi tôùi Meg Whitman, Chuû Tòch & Giaùm Ñoác Ñieàu Haønh
e-Bay taïi San Jose, California, trong ñoù coù Hung Nguyen - Chuû Tòch Nghò Hoäi Ngöôøi Myõ goác Vieät.
Phaùt Ngoân Vieân e-Bay Hani Durzy cho bieát khi moät moùn haøng ñöôïc ñöa leân, noù khoâng ñöôïc
duyeät tröôùc khi leân maøn aûnh, chæ khi khoâng thích hôïp hoaëc baát hôïp phaùp môùi bò xoùa boû vaø
coù bieän phaùp vôùi ngöôøi ñöa leân. e-Bay ñaõ xoùa moùnï ñaáu giaù phuï nöõ VN sau khi bò phaûn aûnh.
- Taùc giaû cho bieát naïn buoân ngöôøi ñaõ ñöôïc toaøn caàu hoùa, vôùi thöông vuï leân ñeán 19 tyû ñoâ la
cho toaøn theá giôùi naêm 2001 (theo Interpol). Caùc nguoàn tin Quoác Hoäi Myõ öôùc löôïng raèng 2 trieäu
ngöôøi, phaàn lôùn laø phuï nöõ vaø treû em, ñaõ bò buoân baùn qua caùc bieân giôùi quoác teá haøng
naêm. Ngöôøi caàm ñaàu ngaønh tö phaùp Myõ John Ashcroft cho caùc phoùng vieân bieát raèng choáng laïi
naïn buoân ngöôøi cho caùc muïc ñích tính duïc laø öu tieân haøng ñaàu cuûa Boä Tö Phaùp Myõ trong
nhieäm kyø cuûa oâng. OÂng ñaõ ban haønh caùc quy ñònh nhaèm trôï giuùp vaø baûo veä caùc naïn nhaân
trong luùc tröôøng hôïp cuûa hoï ñang ñöôïc ñieàu tra vaø keû phaïm phaùp bò baét giöõ (nhö laø vuï buoân
baùn treû em VN nhaèm khai thaùc tính duïc ôû Cam Boát gaàn ñaây).
- Trong naêm 2003, Boä Ngoaïi Giao Hoa Kyø saép VN vaøo Caáp 2, coù lieân heä ñeán vaán ñeà buoân
ngöôøi vaø khai thaùc tính duïc.
Xin ñoïc theâm nguyeân taùc tieáng Anh ñeå bieát theâm chi tieát.
Vietnamese Girls Auctioned on eBay & Vietnam's Failure to Control Sex Trade and Human Trafficking
By Jackie Bong-Wright
Shocking Photos of Vietnamese Teens on website
Photos of a young Vietnamese woman and two Vietnamese teens were posted in early March on
eBay’s Taiwan website with a starting price of $5,400. The company, which acts as an intermediary
between buyers and sellers, and lists everything from used garage-sale merchandise to collectibles,
said that the "items" which were from Vietnam and would be shipped to Taiwan only, would only
be up for bid for 10 days.
Outraged by this human trafficking, Vietnamese activist groups from all over the world, especially
from Australia and the U.S., sent letters of protest to Meg Whitman, President & CEO eBay in San
Jose, California. Hung Nguyen, president of the National Congress of Vietnamese-Americans,
headquartered in Virginia, and other organizations cited the lack of respect and decency, and the
unlawful manner in which eBay conducted their business. They demanded the review and removal
of prohibited auction items.
Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, told the Associated Press that the company did not screen auction
items before they went live on the site, but it usually halted products it deemed inappropriate or
illegal and suspended persons behind such sales. " EBay strictly forbids the sale or purchase of
humans, alive or dead," he said.
Taiwan, according to the State Department, is at once a source, transit country and destination
point for people trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor, with victims coming from China,
Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Globalization of Human Trafficking
Human trafficking, a modern type of slavery, is the third-largest, fastest-growing criminal industry in
the world today. According to Interpol, trafficking in persons was a $19 billion a year business
worldwide in 2001. Congressional sources estimate that 2 million people, mostly women and
children, are trafficked across international borders annually. The U.N puts the number at 4 million,
held against their will to work in the sex trade and in other kinds of slave labor. The CIA reports that
50,000 foreign nationals are trafficked annually into the U.S. alone. The number of Americans
trafficked within the country is even higher, with 200,000 – 400,000 American children prostituted
each year.
The U.S. Congress and administration have upgraded trafficking as a priority. Rep. Chris Smith (R.
NJ) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R., KS) spearheaded the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
That law requires the State Department to report to Congress each year on trafficking, and creates
an interagency task force to coordinate efforts to stop it. It also mandates sanctions for countries
that tolerate the practice. Domestically, the legislation stipulates a 20-year sentence for criminals
who entice victims into sexual slavery.
In its reporting, the State Department divides countries into three kinds. Tier 1 are those that fully
comply with minimum standards successfully prosecuting trafficking and providing assistance to
victims (e.g., Austria, Canada, Taiwan and the United Kingdom). Tier 2 countries are those that do
not fully comply with the minimum standards but are taking steps to bring themselves into
compliance (e.g., Angola, Bangladesh, China, Morocco, Thailand and Vietnam). Tier 3 countries do
not comply with the minimum standards and are making no effort to do so (e.g., Albania, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). A full listing is available at
www.state.gov./g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2003.
Rep. Smith noted that President Bush’s speech at the U.N. in September 2003 devoted nine
paragraphs to the issue of sex trafficking. "Bush displayed a characteristic of his foreign policy,
which combines tough-minded American assertion with a high-minded humanitarianism."
Brownback added, "Sex trafficking includes the classic and awful elements associated with historic
slavery, such as abduction from family and home, use of false promises, transport to a strange
country, loss of freedom and personal dignity, extreme abuse and deprivation."
Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters that fighting sex trafficking would be a priority of the
Department of Justice (DOJ) during his tenure. He issued regulations to assist and protect victims
while their cases are investigated and prosecuted. The new rules also require training for DOJ and
State Department personnel in this area.
Sex Trade in Vietnam
Vietnamese are involved in the sex trade both as victims and perpetrators. In 2003, the State
Department designated Vietnam as a "Tier 2 government, which is a source, transit and, to a lesser
extent, destination country for persons trafficked to forced labor and sexual exploitation."
Back in 1998, John Chalmers wrote in the Chicago Tribune that the transition in Vietnam to a
market-oriented economy had left many women unemployed and forced to find any means to
survive, including prostitution. Around the same time, Reuters reported that Vietnam’s open-door
policy for foreign trade and investment, initiated in the late 1980s, had led to a rapid increase in
trafficking. It also said, in 1997, that Vietnamese military and Communist party officials had been
implicated in the rise of child prostitution. Associated Press cited 1,335 people as having been
arrested in 1996-1997, when Vietnamese police began a crackdown on prostitution.
In 1998, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the government-controlled Vietnam
Women’s Union sponsored a mass media campaign, using television and newspapers to raise
awareness and alert potential victims of trafficking. The government was providing limited funds for
development projects for education and training for at-risk women and youth at the prevention
level.
But government officials were reported to be part of the problem as well. During the 1998 period,
Deutsche Press-Agentur wrote that as high as two thirds of Vietnamese government officials were
known buyers of women in prostitution, their activities being financed through government agency
"slush funds."
Has the situation in Vietnam improved over the past six years? That is hard to say, since statistics
are difficult to come by. The question is whether Vietnam has involved its own police, judicial
authorities, and immigration to enforce trafficking law with prosecutions, convictions and arrests of
perpetrators as well as rehabilitation of victims.
The trafficking section of the State Department2003 Human Rights Report said that Vietnam had
taken part in bi-lateral police cooperation to combat trafficking between China and Cambodia, and
that high-profile local officials were brought to trial and indicted in 2002 and 2003. At least some
anti-trafficking enforcement seems to be occurring. The Vietnamese government said in September
2003 that it was prosecuting five people for participation in a trafficking ring that smuggled women
into Cambodia to work as prostitutes.
On the other hand, the respected NGO Save the Children said in November 2003 that the trafficking
of children was increasing in Vietnam, and that "thousands of women and children are trafficked
both within and outside the country’s borders every year.
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