Child sex tourism in Vietnam a worry

Child sex tourism is a worry among law enforcement bodies in Vietnam when recent cases of child sex crimes have been discovered. Even worse, the current law system has failed to define child sex tourism clearly.

The phrase has not yet been mentioned adequately in any regulation or law, said Khong Ngoc Oanh from the criminal police bureau of the Ministry of Public Security at a conference on fighting child sex tourism held on October 30 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The conference was attended by delegates from Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, host Vietnam, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“Child sex abuse cases in Southeast Asian nations have a tendency to increase in recent years with complexity. Some cases have shocked the community,” said Lieutenant General Phan Van Vinh – chief of the Police General Department.

However, colonel Ho Sy Tien, chief of the Criminal Police Bureau, and Zhuldyz Akisheva, UNODC country director in Vietnam, both commented that not many such cases have been uncovered in Vietnam.

The most notable belonged to English ex-pop star Gary Glitter, who was sentenced in 2006 to three years in prison for committing obscene acts with two underage girls in Vietnam.

Since then, Vietnam has become ‘clean’ from the child sex tourism.

Colonel Tien noted that criminals may either find girls or boys by themselves or through a certain ring. They may also hire children to make pornographic films and photographs.

This month, Tuoi Tre investigative journalists discovered a ring supplying dozens of schoolboys as young as eight to homosexual men in Ho Chi Minh City, charging them US$50 for oral sex and $100 for anal intercourse.

Customers of the ring come from different walks of life, from students in the city to foreigners. They usually demand ‘hot boys with fair skin and undeveloped sexual organs’.

Colonel Tien admitted police have encountered many challenges in investigating cases of child abuse tourism, including identifying the age of victims. They have even been offered bribes by the victims themselves who wanted to hush up the shameful incidents.

Sourced: tuoitrenews