Research into Vietnam’s child protection hotline identifies challenges for anti-trafficking work
Improved resources, training and collaboration could transform outcomes for users of Vietnam’s hotline for child protection, NGOs call on the EU to reject legal loopholes in asylum laws, and Winrock International invites you to join a webinar on the 2023 TIP Report.
A study published in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology analyzes Vietnam’s national child protection hotline to better understand how child trafficking victims (CTV) are assisted, both domestically and abroad. Researchers interviewed national hotline operators from Hanoi, Da Nang and An Giang to find out how they respond to calls from or regarding child trafficking or potential child trafficking victims, and the difficulties they face in doing so. The report also looks at the human resources, legal frameworks, and collaborative mechanisms involved in hotline response strategies, and highlights practical gaps which, the authors say, require greater attention.
Vietnam’s National Hotline for Child Protection was established in 2004 and expanded in 2013 to include child trafficking, in line with its national anti-trafficking action plan. However, last year the government reported a decline in convictions of traffickers for the fifth consecutive year and achieved significantly fewer prosecutions than in 2020. Vietnam was downgraded to Tier 3 in the 2022 TIP Report which stated that, “The Government of Vietnam does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, even considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity.” Although it was moved back to the Tier 2 Watch List this year, the report identified many areas for improvement.
When asked about the challenges faced in operating Vietnam’s hotlines, all participants described a top-down system under which they are governed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), meaning they lack the independence afforded to U.S. and European networks, says the report. Beyond giving advice and information to callers, the main role of hotline services in Vietnam in terms of trafficking is to act as a bridge between potential victims and the relevant authorities, connecting them with counter-trafficking stakeholders instead of assisting them directly. This procedural chain leads to untimely responses as cases do not often move quickly through the system. At the same time, hotline operators do not play an active role in verifying whether agencies have dealt with callers’ requests, so cannot review the quality or effectiveness of the response.
Furthermore, the lack of collaboration between anti-trafficking stakeholders such as government offices, law enforcement agencies and justice departments creates a barrier to adequate and timely action. Hotline operators point to a lack of programming and planning and no clear division of responsibilities between agencies, which do not always communicate effectively, they say. If a trafficking victim needs urgent assistance to leave a situation of exploitation, interviewees say they are more likely to contact an NGO such as Blue Dragon than a national body, because they are far more likely to act with the urgency required.
Most participants agreed that a lack of resources, knowledge and skills hampers their effectiveness in responding to calls. Operators, particularly younger members of staff, have limited knowledge and understanding of child trafficking – many have not completed training courses and do not have the skills and techniques needed to field calls and communicate effectively with agencies.
Interviewees also highlighted the lack of human resources and a pressured workload which prevent them from dealing with callers as comprehensively as they would wish. As of December 2020, there have been more than 4.5 million calls to the National Hotline Service, with 6,923 out of 410,552 cases related to CTV, according to the report. The participants suggested that a team of professionals covering domestic violence and sexual assault, labour rights, runaway and homeless youth, mental health, legal issues, social work, and child welfare was needed, yet currently the hotline has only 42 members of staff.
Addressing child trafficking in Vietnam via a hotline service is still a relatively new approach, and further empirical studies are needed to assess and analyze the current system. The report concludes by suggesting that if Vietnam’s service could be managed in a similar way to the U.S. national human trafficking hotline, it would be able to collect evidence on effectiveness and outcomes that could then be used to improve services and support for child trafficking victims. It is also vital to improve the quality of hotline operators’ skills by expanding training courses. By doing this, hotlines could build their capacity to identify indicators of child trafficking and make better informed referrals using victim-centered principles, thus enabling more effective responses to human trafficking calls.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
At the Vilnius Summit (11-12 July), allies further strengthened NATO’s approach to counter-trafficking work by endorsing a new policy, building on NATO’s 2004 Policy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings. The updated strategy ensures the risk of human trafficking is fully integrated into military planning, duly assessed, and mitigated from the outset. Among other priorities, it will also seek to reduce the risk of NATO funds being used to support human trafficking networks and organizations, for instance through due diligence in supply chain management.
A group of human rights and humanitarian NGOs have issued a joint statement, calling on EU member states and the European Parliament to “Go no Lower: Reject the Use of Legal Loopholes in EU Asylum Law Reforms”. Currently, the EU is moving forward with the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which reduces protection standards and undermines the human rights of asylum seekers in Europe, according to the statement. Moreover, some member states are seeking to revive an additional proposal which would allow them to side step their obligations in cases of alleged “instrumentalization of migrants” by third countries.
Canada’s corporate ethics watchdog has launched separate investigations into Nike Canada and Dynasty Gold to probe allegations that they used or benefited from forced Uyghur labour in their supply chains and operations in China. The investigations were launched last Tuesday after an initial assessment of complaints about the overseas operations of 13 Canadian companies filed by a coalition of 28 civil society organizations in June 2022.
Ghanaian children have been taken from their homes in an operation backed by one of the world’s leading anti-slavery organizations, according to a BBC Africa Eye investigation. In its response, the Ghana office of the International Justice Mission described the allegations in the recent BBC documentary as “incredibly concerning” and containing “material inaccuracies”.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been called to testify about the complicity of its social media platforms in facilitating an “extraordinary” number of human trafficking cases. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is demanding Zuckerberg testify after a new report by Florida’s Statewide Council revealed Meta’s role in more than half the state’s human trafficking cases.
The Labour Rights Foundation/Migrant Worker Rights Network is looking for an experienced professional committed to labour rights to lead the organization forward as its Director.
We invite you to join Winrock International for a webinar on Thursday 27 July, 10-11am (ET), as we discuss the implications of the 2023 TIP Report for foreign assistance, how the TIP Report informs the programmatic priorities and decisions of USG agencies working to counter TIP, and how the anti-trafficking community can support governments to address the recommendations.
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