Rights groups have warned about increasing human trafficking as the pandemic pushes many vulnerable individuals to the brink. They say that despite closed borders, people are crossing illegally into China and Myanmar.
A surge in COVID-19 cases in Vietnam has prompted a spike in human trafficking and smuggling as people become more financially desperate, rights organizations have warned.
Despite Vietnam’s closed borders amid the pandemic, traffickers and smugglers have found new ways to transport people not only within the country but also across borders, they added.
Michael Brosowski, co-founder of the Hanoi-based Blue Dragon Foundation, a child rescue organization, said most trafficking cases he has been handling involve girls and women from ethnic minorities.
Clusters of COVID-19 infections have flared in the industrial northern province of Bac Giang.
Brosowski said there have been reports of teenage girls being trafficked into karaoke bars, which are allegedly fronts for brothels.
“The karaoke bars are serving workers in those industrial zones and that’s also where COVID-19 has taken off, so I think there is a link between the two crises and this shows the need for better regulation of major industrial sites like these,” Brosowski told DW. [read full artice]
