3 arrested for trafficking girls to work at karaoke parlors

By Pham Du   September 25, 2022 | 08:27 pm PT
3 arrested for trafficking girls to work at karaoke parlors
(From L) Tran Van Can, Nguyen Thi Nhung and Tran Truong Oanh at a police station in Vinh Phuc Province, September 25, 2022. Photo by the police
Two men and a woman in northern Vietnam have been arrested for allegedly trafficking three teenage girls to work at karaoke parlors.

Nguyen Thi Nhung, 47, Tran Van Can, 51, and Tran Truong Oanh, 33, face charges of "trafficking people under 16," police in Binh Xuyen District, Vinh Phuc Province, said Sunday.

They said Nhung works as manager at a karaoke bar in Tuyen Quang Town in the namesake province next to Vinh Phuc.

In July she reportedly paid VND20 million (US$840) to "buy" three girls aged 13-14 from other karaoke bars to work at her place.

They were held captive and made to work without a salary.

She told them since she had spent money to "buy" and provide them with accommodation and food, they had to work in return.

The police said one of the girls escaped once but was caught, and Nhung saddled her with a "debt" of VND15 million for her act.

In August Oanh and Can came to Nhung to buy the girls for VND74 million so that the latter could use them at his karaoke parlor, DJ Club, in Vinh Phuc's Binh Xuyen District.

In mid-August the family of one of the girls found out she had been tricked and sold to DJ Club and complained to the police.

Cases of girls being tricked and sold to karaoke and massage parlors are not rare in Vietnam. In most cases, they come from poor families and drop out of school early and are lured by recruitment information on social media promising them high salaries put out by human traffickers.

 
 
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