Girls offer relaxation services

The Department of Social Evil Prevention under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (Molisa) confirmed the situation at a conference on social evils in the southern region on August 7-8. 

According to Nguyen Trong Dam, Deputy Minister of Molisa, prostitution is a common problem in every city, especially in big city like HCMC and Hanoi.

The prostitution rings often disguised as legal services making it difficult to control. Around 1,500 sex workers in HCM City are reported to be still out of control of management agencies.

In addtion, the agencies admitted that they are still weak in predicting the growth of the trade as well as assessing the situation.

The Department of Social Evils Prevention will review and propose amendments for the Penal Code to be more in sync with the current situation. New offences will be added such as "organising prostitution".

In the first half of 2012, 26,000 firms were discovered offering 'relaxation' services and 8,360 of which violated the law. 2,800 businesses have been fined VND6 billion and 4,000 were reprimanded, however, only 94 establishments had licenses revoked.

The police force have busted over 500 prostitution establishments and arrested 2,000 sex workers, clients and pimps and madams. People's Office of Supervision and Control have prosecuted over 400 cases.

At the border with China, human trafficking continues to run wild. The border guards have uncovered 133 cases and rescued 177 victims in which 16 were children.