City police look for S. Koreans and their ‘fiancées’

Ho Chi Minh City police are looking for three South Korean men and the women they chose from an illegal parade organized at a house in District 8 Friday.

The police apprehended a broker who had illegally arranged to parade 69 women for the three Korean men looking to purchase brides.

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Pham Van Thang, a repeat offender, had rented a local house in District 8 at VND400,000 (US$23) per parade.

The women, mostly 18 to 26 years of age, came from the Mekong Delta provinces of Hau Giang and Kien Giang as well as Can Tho City.

When the police arrived, the Koreans had already left with the three women they had chosen.

The women who were paraded in front of prospective South Korean husbands in Ho Chi Minh City Friday.

Thang, 42, and his wife Truong Thi Thuy Diem, 27, selected the women from suppliers around HCMC outlying districts of 8, Tan Phu and Binh Chanh.

In this racket, they pocket $2,000 from the $5,000-6,000 the Koreans would pay for each wife. The suppliers would collect the rest of the money. The family of the chosen women receives VND3 million ($171.58).

According to local police, the couple have hired the house of 72- year-old Nguyen Thuong regularly since 2007 and succeeded in holding three parades this year.

Thang was first caught and fined VND1 million ($57) in 2007 after parading 17 Vietnamese women for South Korean men.

Police officer Pham Van Sau of District 8 said, “Thang signed a commitment last month to stop his illegal brokering, but has broken it.”

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The district police are detaining the 66 women, the brokers and the house owner while the city police look for the three South Korean men and the women they chose.

Brokering marriages for fees is illegal in Vietnam, where matchmaking can only be conducted by non-profit centers run by provincial women’s associations and charities.

The government in January announced a plan for the nation’s first matchmaking firm in HCMC to prevent the abuse of Vietnamese women by foreigners. The plan is to be submitted to the prime minister by the end of June.

In early February the police busted an illegal match-making case in Binh Chanh District where 31 Vietnamese women were paraded before two South Korean men.

Several studies have revealed that the number of Vietnamese women marrying foreigners, mostly from East Asian countries, has surged in the past decade.

Many of those marriages, arranged through unauthorized matchmakers, result from the women’s desire to have a better life and help their destitute families in rural areas.

Source: TN, VNA