The General Department of Police has asked the force nationwide to form plans to combat rings involved in trafficking in border regions, especially those adjoining China and Cambodia.

It will work closely with border guards and other agencies to rescue and repatriate victims of trafficking who face being sold in foreign countries. So far this year, 191 trafficking cases involving 417 women and children have been detected.

A recent ministry report says about 360 people are currently under investigation for getting involved in human trafficking. Since 2005, there have been 1,600 cases involving 4,300 victims and about 3,000 people have been investigated.

Traffickers often sell women and children they have kidnapped in the northern provinces of Ha Giang, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Dien Bien to contacts in China.

“Reasons for trafficking were the economic crisis, unemployment and residents’ low awareness of the law,” said Nguyen Tri Phuong, deputy director of the Social Order Crime Investigation Police Department.

“To prevent human trafficking, we need help from our neighbours”, he said.

The ministry has worked out a plan to co-ordinate with provincial police and border guards and bodies in China, Cambodia and Laos to eliminate trafficking rings.

Traffickers often take advantage of dark nights and a lack of vigilance among families to kidnap children. In isolated cases, they have murdered parents to kidnap newborn babies.

Nearly 80 percent of the women live in Mekong Delta provinces and Ho Chi Minh City, where police have discovered five cases of illegal marriage brokerage and arrested 26 people for acting as middlemen.