Protecting physical safety and privacy of human trafficking victims in Vietnam

Abstract

Under Vietnamese policies, trafficked persons are first received and verified by anti-trafficking agencies. They need to be provided the protection of physical safety and privacy. It is investigated that while victims have formal rights to protections of their privacy upon return, in practice this was not always adhered to. The government only applied a few protective methods stipulated in the national law, leaving a great many trafficked persons to reside in the unsafe environments where they were at risk of being re-trafficked, exploited or threatened after returning. In this paper, the author intends to investigate physical safety and security issues of Vietnamese trafficking victims, legal framework of protecting physical safety and privacy of human trafficking victims, the protection situation as well as some recommendations for Vietnam.