Contact: Patrick Creamer for the House Committee on International Relations, 202-225-3765

News Advisory:

BACKGROUND: Vice-Chairman Chris Smith (R-N.J.), will preside over a hearing of the House International Relations Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006 at 10 a.m. to examine private, governmental and intergovernmental efforts to eradicate human trafficking.

Friday, September 15, 2006 · Last updated 1:20 a.m. PT

By ANDREW GLAZER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Ngoc Bich Nguyen's mother was lured far from Vietnam by the promise of a high-paying factory job that she hoped would allow both of her daughters to attend college.

Instead, she ended up in a Samoan sweatshop, a victim of smugglers who enslaved her and about 250 other desperate women from China and Vietnam.

(29-08-2006)
HA NOI — Over 100 Vietnamese and Chinese children voiced their concerns over cross border trafficking at a first-ever joint children’s forum between the two countries in Ha Noi yesterday.

VOA
August 29, 2006, 16:55 EDT

Hanoi -- Vietnamese officials are unable to say how many women and children are trafficked from Vietnam into China each year. But they say the numbers are rising.

The Guardian, 18 August 2006

Home Office condemned over plan to deport asylum-seeking minors

The Home Office is drawing up plans to forcibly repatriate up to 500 children to Vietnam as part of a programme that could see thousands of minors sent back to an uncertain future in the countries where they were born.