Vietnam resolute

Aggressive measures

The most notable effort in the fight against human trafficking recently has been the introduction of legal documents related to human trafficking prevention and combat. Specifically, with the promulgation of Government Decree 20/2021/NĐ-CP, dated March 15, 2021, as well as a circular by the Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs guiding the implementation of said decree, the allowance for victims of human trafficking has been increased in order to meet their actual needs. On April 22, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular stipulating the responsibility of the people’s public security force in carrying out some friendly criminal proceedings when handling reports on crimes of abuse against people under 18.

Concerning the prevention of human trafficking in the field of sending Vietnamese workers abroad, along with the introduction of the 2020 Law on Vietnamese Guest Workers, a range of documents guiding its implementation have also been issued. Under a Government decree, the licence of a guest worker service provider will be revoked if it takes advantage of the overseas dispatch of workers to engage in human trafficking, exploitation or forced labour. The acts of taking advantage of the overseas dispatch of workers to engage in exploitation and forced labour that are not sufficient for criminal prosecution will be heavily penalised under Government Decree 12/2022/NĐ-CP, dated January 17, 2022, on administrative fines in the fields of labour, social insurance, overseas dispatch of Vietnamese workers. The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs’ Circular No. 21/2021/TT-BLDTBXH, dated December 15, 2021, also specifically stipulates the ceiling of service fees collected from employees for a number of industries, occupations, specific jobs to prohibit enterprises from illegally collecting fees from employees, with some industries in each market not being allowed to collect service fees.

Regarding the prevention and combat of human trafficking, there are a number of other important documents such as: the Government’s Resolution No. 28/NQ-CP, dated March 3, 2021, on promulgating the National Strategy on Gender Equality for the 2021-2030 period, under which the Ministry of Public Security has been assigned to assume the prime responsibility for developing, implementing and reporting on the results of implementation of tasks and solutions on human trafficking prevention and combat; the programme on  protecting and supporting children to interact healthy and creatively in the online environment for the 2021-2025 period (Prime Minister’s Decision No. 830/QD-TTg, dated June 1, 2021), which aims to take action to prevent and detect acts of abuse against children in the online environment, handle acts of taking advantage of the online environment to commit prohibited acts against children in any form according to the provisions of law; and the programme on the prevention and reduction of child labour for the 2021-2025 period, with orientation to 2030 (Prime Minister’s Decision No. 782/QD-TTg, dated May 27, 2021), in which one of the programme’s solutions and tasks is to prevent and combat crimes of child trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.

In order to prevent the risk of human trafficking in international migration, especially in illegal migrant activities, on March 20, 2020, ministries, sectors and localities continued with the strict implementation of the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration plan (Decision No. 402/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister). Vietnam is currently preparing a dossier of accession to the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime in 2000. This is an effort to prevent the risk of human trafficking through criminal activities through the smuggling of migrants (although the two forms of crime are different). 

In addition, inter-sectorial coordination has also been maintained and consolidated under the close and timely direction of the Government's steering committee for crime prevention and control (Steering committee 138). Regarding the prevention and combat of human trafficking, in addition to the working mechanism of Steering committee 138, the Ministry of Public Security has established an interdisciplinary working group to implement the programme on human trafficking prevention and control for the 2021-2025 period, with a vision to 2030.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the complicated developments of the disease, which had certain impacts on the implementation of the prevention and combat of human trafficking, Vietnam had many solutions to adapt to the situation. In particular, in order to ensure the progress of settlement and trial of all kinds of cases (including human trafficking cases), the Supreme People's Court has requested courts at all levels to schedule trials and settle cases even on Saturdays and Sundays to ensure progress and time limit for settlement; to rent meeting rooms and arrange trial rooms to satisfy all conditions in case there are not enough meeting rooms or trial rooms; give priority to trial and settlement of cases that are prepared for the expiration of the time limit for trial and settlement. In particular, on the basis of the proposal of the Supreme People's Court, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 33/2021/QH15 dated November 12, 2021 on organising an online trial (effective from January 1, 2022).