In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

The global financial crisis has increased the number of desperate job seekers and prompted many to take greater risks for new income opportunities. In Vietnam, a source country for human trafficking, there are some who take advantage of the country’s opening borders resulting from the last two decades of political and economic reform. Alas, men often become victims of forced labor overseas, while women are lured into prostitution after false, brokered marriages to foreigners unravel. To combat the alarming rise in human trafficking incidents in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, The Asia Foundation is expanding projects in schools and community centers to teach young men and women about safe migration. The project, with new funding from the United States Agency for International Development, will reach 40,000 students and other young people and provide them with information and skills that will help them identify and avoid trafficking schemes in their search for jobs or when considering marriage proposals abroad. The Foundation will also work with government officials and service providers – such as police, legal professionals, social workers, and health care workers – to draft a policy document that defines a victim’s basic rights and provides a minimum standard of care across agencies. Read more about the Foundation’s anti-trafficking work in Vietnam and its role in Cambodia’s recent milestone in establishing a national set of policies for standardized care of victims.