Six jailed for selling women to China as wives

Luong Thi Hai, 31, a native of central Nghe An Province, was identified as the ringleader.

She received 30 years behind bars for "human trafficking, buying and selling people under 16, organizing illegal entry for others and confiscation of property," at the trial in the southern province Tuesday.

Pham Thi Tu, Huynh Mong Linh, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha, Thach Thi Thu Nga, Nguyen Thi Tuyen, received 5 to 29 years in prison on the same charge.

According to the verdict, Hai went to China to work in 2015. She then got married and settled in China's central province of Henan. 

Hai knew that many men in China wanted to marry Vietnamese women to have children, so she and her husband, whose identity and address remain unknown, decided to trick and sell Vietnamese women to the men.

In 2019, Hai became acquainted with Tu and Linh via a group to match Vietnamese women with foreign men on social networks.

They looked for women with difficult family circumstances and low education in Bac Lieu and neighbouring provinces to deceive and sell to China.

The victims were required to pay a fee of VND40 million (US$1,630) each, and promised that they would have a stable future in China and their families in Vietnam would receive some money.

The women were brought to Can Tho City or HCMC from where they flew to Hanoi and then crossed the border illegally into China.

Theyn were then taken to a hotel in China's Henan Province where Hai and her husband kept them hostage to wait for Chinese men to pick them up as wives for sale.

Anyone who dared to fight back would be beaten and threatened to be sold to brothels.

Depending on the age and appearance of the women, Chinese men would pay Hai and her husband VND200-400 million.

Of the earnings, Hai paid Tu VND140-160 million for each woman sold. Linh was paid VND10-12 million each.

Tu gave the families of each woman VND90-100 million as promised.

According to the indictment, some women were tortured after getting married to Chinese men so they wanted to return home, but Hai ruled that anyone who wanted to leave China must pay the ring all the money their family has received along with an extra sum.

In several cases, some women had escaped but were caught by Hai's group.

Police said between 2019 and 2022, Hai’s ring tricked and sold 11 women to China, including a girl under 16, and pocketed VND1 billion.

Hai even made agreements with her Chinese customers that if the women escaped within two years of the marriage, she would compensate them or find a new wife as a replacement.

According to HCMC Police’s newspaper, the case came to light in October 2022 when one of the women tried to kill herself in China after several failed attempts to escape, so her husband’s family decided to bring her to the police.

She was deported back to Vietnam. She then went to the police and filed a report against Hai and her accomplices.

This woman, who lives in HCMC’s District 6, told the police that the gang promised to find her a job with a monthly salary of VND18 million in China.