Vietnamese, Chinese arrested after selling 15 ‘wives’ to China
Police in Tay Ninh Province in southern Vietnam have arrested two Chinese men and four Vietnamese women for allegedly brokering local women to Chinese men seeking wives.
A police source said the six would be questioned for human trafficking.
Officers caught three of them red-handed as they were about to put three women on a flight at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport on May 5.
Their confessions led the police to the leaders Huang Qin Lu, 49, a Chinese national, and his Vietnamese wife Chau Thi Thuy Trang, 38.
The China-based couple looked for men there who could not find a wife at home and supplied them wives from Vietnam for more than US$6,100 each.
They paid a person in Vietnam VND80 million (US$3,700) to look for women and that person enlisted others.
A Chinese national would bring customers from China to choose from a lineup of prospective brides in Ho Chi Minh hotels.
The police said the gang has sent at least 15 Vietnamese women to China in this manner.
Official figures show that thousands of women have been sent to China every year.
The brokers would look for Chinese men who are either too poor or too old to find a bride at home and Vietnamese women from poor rural areas who dream of a better life overseas.