12 youth tricked into bonded labor rescued in Vietnam

Border guards last week rescued 12 young people who were tricked into working on fishing boats off the coast of Kien Giang Province, beaten and not allowed to come ashore.

The rescue operation was launched after the family of an 18-year-old boy from the south central province of Ninh Thuan asked the province's border guards to rescue him.

According to the family's complaint, the teenager was tricked into working on a fishing boat in Kien Giang by a broker called Chin for VND12 million ($515) per month.

However, once he got on the boat, he was regularly beaten, not allowed to return to the mainland and not paid, with his employer claiming that the payment had already been made to broker Chin.

Upon investigating the complaint, Kien Giang border guards discovered the victim and 11 others being forced to work on two fishing boats off the province's coast and rescued them last Friday night.

Provincial authorities said they have placed two men Huynh Thanh Vu, 36, and Tran Minh Trung, 42, under investigation. No further information about the men or the case was available at the time of going to press.

Last April, border guards had rescued 11 workers from forced labor at an illegal gold mine in the central province of Quang Nam.