A court in the central province of Nghe An on Friday sentenced a woman to six years in prison for human trafficking.
Nguyen Thi Ut Tha, 51, was accused of trafficking two women, aged 24 and 27, from the province's Tuong Duong District to China between April and November 2012. She allegedly sold the victims to an acquaintance in China for VND50 million ($2,200), who then resold them to two locals for over VND150 million each.
Nguyen Thi Ut Tha listens to the court's verdict. Photo by VnExpress. |
The victims eventually managed to return to Vietnam last August and reported Tha to the police.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court also ordered Tha to return the VND50 million she had illegally gained.
Vietnamese trafficking victims rose nearly 13 percent to 1,128 in 2016, and only around half of them have been rescued, according to a government report.
Most of the victims were uneducated women and children from poor areas. They were sold to men seeking wives in China, Malaysia and South Korea, or just to bear children or work as prostitutes in these countries, the report said