A charity group reported to police investigating a child trafficking case at Bo De Pagoda that they have witnessed at least 11 children disappear from the facility.

Children cared for at Bo De Pagoda 

The group did charity work at the pagoda from August 2007 to September 2012. Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, a member of the group, said that when hearing about the child trafficking case at Bo De Pagoda she returned to the pagoda on July 19 to ask about the disappearance of the 11 children and the answers she got from the monks were different from those of the caretakers.

One infant named Tung Anh who disappeared was taken to the pagoda in August 2007 and was gone the next year. One monk said the mother took him back. However, the head monk, Thich Dam Lan, once said in an interview that the only child the pagoda had returned to the parents was an 8-year-old and it couldn't be Tung Anh.

When another child disappeared in 2012, the group was told that one of the caretakers had adopted him. More recently, however, they were told that the same child had not been adopted, but returned to the mother.

The group claims to have the photos and names of the missing children. They also collected the lists of names of abandoned children annually as evidence. The children were given similar-sounding names, and some were given the same names, making them distinguishable only by date of birth. This practice poses difficulties for investigators who are trying to find out the identity and fates of the missing children.

On August 6, two inspection teams from the Women's Union and the Hanoi Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs blocked the entrance of the care facility to unauthorised individuals. The inspection will last for one week. Previously, in May, the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs proposed sending the remaining children to social protection centres.