According to Agence France-Presse
Police in Vietnam have arrested two people suspected of trafficking 20 babies in the communist country since 2007, a report said Monday.
The two suspects, a man and a woman detained Saturday in the southern province of Dong Nai, had confessed to buying the babies at hospitals in the south of the country, according to the VietnamNet online news website.
They then resold them to another Vietnamese for between four and 12 million dong (about 225 to 675 dollars).
VietnamNet did not specify whether the babies were intended for international adoption or not.
Dong Nai police could not be reached Monday evening to confirm the report.
Holt International, the only American agency licensed by Vietnam’s Department of International Adoptions to work in Dong Nai Province, told VVAI it was their understanding these were new arrests based on an old case.
Holt’s Vietnam Program Director said she believes these arrests are related to cases of domestic adoptions in Vietnam. “Sometimes, people sold children to Vietnamese childless couples who want to adopt.” She added, “Holt works closely with the orphanages that we place children from and admissions of children into care are strictly supervised to ensure only deserving orphans are admitted into care and place for international adoption.”
Such informal domestic “adoptions” may be somewhat common in Dong Nai due to its industrial areas where many young people are employed. In this article from July 2009, VietNamNet Bridge reports on young women working in factories who find themselves pregnant and alone. Some feel they have no choice but to abandon or sell their baby.
One day about a year ago, the people around the Viet Huong Industrial Zone were shocked when a worker who packed her baby in a black plastic bag and left it in a dustbin. Luckily, a boarding house owner discovered and adopted the baby.
In Binh’s kindergarten, there is a little girl named Trang. Her father is a worker at the Binh Duong 2 industrial zone. Trang’s parents divorced when Trang was less than one year old. Her mother took the baby to Hue to sell to another woman. Luckily, Trang’s maternal grandmother discovered the affair and asked her dad to come to Hue to redeem her. Since then, Trang has lived with her father in Binh Duong.
It is also possible that these arrests are related to an older case centered in northern Vietnam. Last October in a baby trafficking ring investigation based out of HaNoi, some of the babies involved were linked back to Dong Nai.
Hoan Kiem District Police in late February 2008 uncovered a newborn baby trafficking ring and arrested three people. From this clue, they have detected some more members of the network and arrested four more. Four others have run away and are being hunted.
According to investigations, these people sold 38 children to China. Police have seized many notices of birth granted by hospitals in HCM City, Dong Nai Province and Hanoi from these people.
Clearly there is no way to know for certain the details of these latest arrests without additional information from Vietnam. We will post updates if or when that information becomes available.
While news of arrests is disturbing, especially to those of us with children from these provinces, it is also encouraging to see Vietnamese officials throughout the country taking a strong stand against child trafficking. Without such actions assurances of a better more ethical program in the future would ring hollow.
4 Responses
So….are you okay with Holt’s statement? You seem to have taken it easy on them as opposed to others. Certainly have been a number who deserve the flack, but why not Holt? What is your reason for not being a bit harsher in terms of questioning what they said in response to this event?
Hi bella
Yes, I am “okay” with Holt’s statement, for a few reasons…
1. They are the ONLY agency from a province where arrests have been made to be forthcoming with any kind of response. Not only that but they indicated they will continue to look into the matter. They did not pretend to have all the answers, but shared what they knew. If only other agencies responded likewise in similar situations.
2. As far as I am aware (from being a client of Holt and frequenting their listserv) there were NO infants adopted from Dong Nai through Holt. I think the youngest child was 18-24 months old. So it’s unlikely that any of the trafficked babies could have been in any way connected to Holt.
3. From personal experience I can tell you that the local authorities in that province were extremely slow/methodical in processing paperwork. Most adoptions from that province took more than a year, start to finish. I have a number of theories as to why that was, but it seems very unlikely that if there were any paperwork discrepancies they would not have been found under that kind of scrutiny.
4. Holt has a rock solid reputation in adoptions worldwide. They are considered the “gold standard”. It comes from their priorities (family preservation 1st, domestic adoptions 2nd, international adoption last) as well as their absolute refusal to bend rules or participate in any type of corruption, payments or favors. I would be very shocked to learn that anyone in their organization would be involved in any sort of trafficking allegations.
That said, of course we will continue to report any news on this situation – as well as other adoption-related news items out of VN – as objectively as possible and allow our readers to come to their own conclusions.
99% of Vietnamese people in Vietnam they do not want to adopt and certainly they do not pay to adopt or buy the children. If they want to adopt they just adopt directly from the child parent/s and bring the child home and most the time they do not need to do legal paper work. Domestic adoption is very easy like you buy a chicken and raise them. Therefore, the children must be sale to international adoption.
I was personally experience a monk has use the abandon children to receive donation from U.S and from people allover the world. The children are abuse many of them are sick and did not have proper care, I want to help to bring a child to the hospital to but the monk refused. The images of suffering children are always in my head and I want to rescue them but I don’t know how and where to start due to Vietnam the law is not clear and the police are big corruption.
I cry from time to time for those less fortune.
Jennifer
99% of Vietnamese people in Vietnam they do not want to adopt and certainly they do not pay to adopt or buy the children. If they want to adopt they just adopt directly from the child parent/s and bring the child home and most the time they do not need to do legal paper work. Domestic adoption is very easy like you buy a chicken and raise them. Therefore, the children must be sale to international adoption.
I was personally experience a monk has use the abandon children to receive donation from U.S and from people allover the world. The children are abuse many of them are sick and did not have proper care, I want to help to bring a child to the hospital to but the monk refused. The images of suffering children are always in my head and I want to rescue them but I don’t know how and where to start due to Vietnam the law is not clear and the police are big corruption