Traffickers often operate within their own communities and use personal and social networks to lure victims.

Community Resilience and Protection: Anti-Trafficking in Northern Vietnam

  • Commercial Sexual Exploitation
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    From 2019-2020, GFEMS funded anti-trafficking programming in Northern Vietnam, led by implementation partners Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. This briefing document presents the consolidated learnings from interventions conducted in Ha Giang Province, where communities are at high risk of trafficking due to socio-economic vulnerabilities including low-levels of educational attainment, high poverty rates, and a reliance on low-margin agriculture. Members of these communities predominantly live in remote and rural areas and belong to disadvantaged ethnic minority groups. These characteristics, coupled with the proximity of a long and porous land border with China, result in high levels of migration through irregular channels, leaving individuals vulnerable to threats, deception, exploitation, and lack of legal protections.

    The intervention model comprised three key components aimed at building community resilience through early identification and support to at-risk households, facilitating comprehensive rehabilitation and reintegration support for trafficking survivors, and impeding traffickers through strengthened legal response.

    Select Key Findings

    Traffickers operate within their own communities.

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    The majority of traffickers belong to the same vulnerable communities as victims, have relatively low levels of educational attainment, and face a lack of viable livelihood opportunities.

    Traffickers use personal and online social networks.

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    Traffickers are using social media, smart phones, and other forms of technology to identify, groom, lure, and traffic victims.

    Risky migration can be reduced if community-led awareness campaigns are combined with targeted livelihood support:

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    Compared to residents in control communities, residents of intervention communities within Ha Giang were less likely to migrate without a contract, less likely to have their documents confiscated, and less likely to migrate with debt at project endline.

    For more findings and to see our recommendations, download the briefing.

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