Nguyen Thi Thao from Hoa Binh Province, who was sold to a brothel in Guangdong province in October 2011 when she was just 16, is among those who have fallen victim to brazen kidnappings and re-kidnappings by different factions.

>> Part 1 The Cheap Flesh Market

>> Part 2 Wife sold for $1,500 

>> Part 3 Kidnap and abortion

>> Part 4 Unimaginable exploitation

One evening, a hotel employee from Linh Coong town called her manager – madam Xao – to supply one girl for the hotel. Thao was chosen and was taken there by two pimps, strapped in the middle on a motorbike.

Thao arrived at the hotel at 7pm and was taken to the third floor where many large, tattooed men were waiting. To her surprise, instead of having to serve them as usual, she was kidnapped.

First, one told her to sit down while another locked the door, after which the group tied and gagged her. With tears in her eyes, she was dragged out under the surveillance of the thugs, many of whom were wielding weapons.

She was then pushed into a car and transported to a deserted hill around 1 hour from Linh Coong, where she was left tied for the whole night while her captors negotiated with one brothel owner after another.

By early morning A Mai, the brutal husband of madam Xao who is her ‘rightful’ owner, led a group of around a dozen thugs to the hill to ‘rescue’ her.

Outnumbered, her kidnappers fled and Thao was ‘saved’, meaning she had to return to her old master and resume her sexual slavery.

Immediately after these events, Thao had to serve clients again without being given any rest. Instead of words of sympathy for her ordeal, all she got was, “this means you have to work more for me, to pay for the money I spent on hiring men to rescue you”.

Ly, who has been rescued to Vietnam, likes to browse the web to look for information about her friends (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Thao is not alone.

In madam Xao’s own house many girls have been kidnapped. Some were lucky enough to be rescued, while others have not been heard from again.

Than Thi Mo, who is infected with HIV, told Tuoi Tre, “they sell, kidnap, and re-kidnap girls as if they were vegetables. Some young, beautiful girls are kidnapped up to three times a month by different factions”.

At 3pm on September 3, 2011, Mo was inside a barber shop when five masked men entered and took her away. They threw her into a car before driving around to kidnap more women.

After their job was done, the kidnappers demanded ransoms for the girls. If they were in demand by clients, the brothel owners would pay the money to get them back. Meanwhile, those considered not worth the ransom would be sold to a different parlor.

Madam Van and her Chinese husband paid to get Mo back, as she was young and well-liked by many customers.

The kidnappers have even tricked the poor girls. Vu Thuy Ly, born in 1991 in Thanh Hoa province, met a man who spoke some Vietnamese and claimed to be able to rescue her and send her to Vietnam.

She trusted him and escaped from her brothel into his arms only to recognize that he was just another evil human trafficker who sold her to a new place.

Escape

An escape opportunity came to Nguyen Thi Thao when, at the end of last year, Chinese police started carrying out inspections of this red light district and called all suspected brothel owners in for questioning.

As a result, the pimps at A Mai’s house went into hiding to avoid police scrutiny and thus all of the prostitutes were left alone with only A Mai, the female manager.

Thao hatched a plan with another girl named Hong to tie the manager up. But Hong reneged, expressing doubt that they would be able to find the way back to Vietnam. But Thao reassured her that she had secretly hidden 200 yuan inside a pillow and could use the money to travel as far from the brothel as possible.

“Dying on the road is OK for me as long as it is not in this brothel”, Thao told Hong.

The two then stealthily snuck up on the manager, overpowered her and tied her up with the door curtain. They locked her inside a room, took her motorbike and fled.

Thao drove until 1am, and they had covered over 100km when a car sped up and bumped into them. The two escapees fell and were captured.

Thao was beaten hard by a pimp who said “stupid girl stupid girl. I told you never to run. Now how do you want to die?”

Hong too was savagely beaten. They used an iron bar to hit her face and back. They were escorted to the brothel where they were beaten again before being sold to another brothel.

Another attempted escapee is Nghiem Thi Thu of Vinh Phuc province. She and another girl managed to flee to a construction site where a guard agreed to let them in. But upon seeing the two in skimpy costumes, he made sexual advances, forcing the women to run away to a hotel.

The guard at this hotel agreed to hide the girls on the terrace. But again, when they were on the top floor, he started to abuse them.

Screaming, they ran downstairs and were grabbed by the guard, who called the police. The two were taken to the station and spent one day there before being sent back to Vietnam. Thu’s journey had ended.