Protection for Trafficked Persons in Viet Nam: Another National Security Discourse?

Abstract

Viet Nam has ratified the Trafficking Protocol and the Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (CTOC) and is therefore bound to adopt the three purposes of the Protocol (art 2), namely Prevention, Protection and Cooperation between States. This article is about the implementation of the Protection obligation in Viet Nam. Under the Trafficking Protocol, trafficked persons are regarded as victims of human rights abuses (see Trafficking Protocol: preamble, arts 6-8) as well as victims of crime. Viet Nam’s 2011 anti-trafficking law (2011) incorporates a protection regime for trafficked persons that purports to follow the international framework’s rights-based, victim-centred approach. However, this article demonstrates that the Vietnamese legal framework fails in this approach. For example, trafficked persons can be sanctioned for infringement of the law, including status-related offences. In other aspects of the law, trafficked persons are seen as passive victims rather than people with agency and autonomy who can make informed decisions about their life. The manner in which Viet Nam’s protection regime characterizes trafficked persons reflects the nation’s perception of trafficking. Viet Nam views trafficking as a problem that is connected to prostitution, which is regarded as a “social evil”, and as such trafficking is seen as an issue connected to maintenance of national pride and identity. This is the result of an enduring and dominant perception of trafficking as an issue of border control and national security. Furthermore, as I will demonstrate, Viet Nam’s protection regime ignores the link between trafficking and labour migration by continuing to focus on trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation. First, the article describes the trafficking situation in Viet Nam and the protection regime, before explaining how the Vietnamese legal framework views trafficked persons as tools of the legal system.