Chief Michael Chong of the bureau has revealed that there are 20 cases of Vietnamese women who have run away from their local husbands, taking their children with them.
Chong believes that these women have returned to Vietnam as there has been no trace of them or their children in the country.
Speaking at a press conference on June 6, Chong said he had met with Le Phu Hoa, director of the Vietnam Foreign Affairs who agreed to try to locate the women and children.
“He has promised he will do his best to help, but only on humanitarian grounds,” he said.
“We understand the importance of a mother’s love, so we will not side with anyone and will not attempt to separate mother and child. We only want to bring them together so they can discuss among themselves how best to resolve the issue.”
However, Chong added that since the children were mostly Malaysian, he would have to seek assistance from Wisma Putra to see what could be done about them.
Chong explained that many of these marriages were arranged by matchmaking agents who charged anywhere between RM18,000 ($4,000) and RM25,000 ($6,000).
He speculated that many of the women ran away because of the huge age difference between the wives and their husbands.
“Some of them look old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers,” he quipped.
He urged the husbands and their parents to share as much information about the runaway wives, including, if possible, their addresses in Vietnam.
He says as a last option they could ask for the help of Vietnamese media to find the missing mothers and children.
Chong suggested that the best way to find the missing mothers was to refer to the agents as they would also have contacts of agents in Vietnam who could easily acquire information about the missing women.